Exposure, Perception, and Behavior
Mark Schaller, Gregory Miller, Will Gervais, Sarah Yager & Edith Chen
Psychological Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
An experiment (N = 28) tested the hypothesis that the mere visual perception of disease-connoting cues promotes a more aggressive immune response. Participants were exposed either to photographs depicting symptoms of infectious disease or to photographs depicting guns. After incubation with a model bacterial stimulus, participants' white blood cells produced higher levels of the proinflammatory cytokine interleukin-6 (IL-6) in the infectious-disease condition, compared with the control (guns) condition. These results provide the first empirical evidence that visual perception of other people's symptoms may cause the immune system to respond more aggressively to infection. Adaptive origins and functional implications are discussed.
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Shedding light on insight: Priming bright ideas
Michael Slepian, Max Weisbuch, Abraham Rutchick, Leonard Newman & Nalini Ambady
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, July 2010, Pages 696-700
Abstract:
Previous research has characterized insight as the product of internal processes, and has thus investigated the cognitive and motivational processes that immediately precede it. In this research, however, we investigate whether insight can be catalyzed by a cultural artifact, an external object imbued with learned meaning. Specifically, we exposed participants to an illuminating lightbulb - an iconic image of insight - prior to or during insight problem-solving. Across four studies, exposing participants to an illuminating lightbulb primed concepts associated with achieving an insight, and enhanced insight problem-solving in three different domains (spatial, verbal, and mathematical), but did not enhance general (non-insight) problem-solving.
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Kwan Min Lee, Wei Peng & Julian Klein
Computers in Human Behavior, forthcoming
Abstract:
The present study investigates the impact of the experience of role playing a violent character in a video game on attitudes towards violent crimes and criminals. People who played the violent game were found to be more acceptable of crimes and criminals compared to people who did not play the violent game. More importantly, interaction effects were found such that people were more acceptable of crimes and criminals outside the game if the criminals were matched with the role they played in the game and the criminal actions were similar to the activities they perpetrated during the game. The results indicate that people's virtual experience through role-playing games can influence their attitudes and judgments of similar real-life crimes, especially if the crimes are similar to what they conducted while playing games. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
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The Counterfeit Self: The Deceptive Costs of Faking It
Francesca Gino, Michael Norton & Dan Ariely
Psychological Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Although people buy counterfeit products to signal positive traits, we show that wearing counterfeit products makes individuals feel less authentic and increases their likelihood of both behaving dishonestly and judging others as unethical. In four experiments, participants wore purportedly fake or authentically branded sunglasses. Those wearing fake sunglasses cheated more across multiple tasks than did participants wearing authentic sunglasses, both when they believed they had a preference for counterfeits (Experiment 1a) and when they were randomly assigned to wear them (Experiment 1b). Experiment 2 shows that the effects of wearing counterfeit sunglasses extend beyond the self, influencing judgments of other people's unethical behavior. Experiment 3 demonstrates that the feelings of inauthenticity that wearing fake products engenders - what we term the counterfeit self - mediate the impact of counterfeits on unethical behavior. Finally, we show that people do not predict the impact of counterfeits on ethicality; thus, the costs of counterfeits are deceptive.
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Jennifer Gutsell & Michael Inzlicht
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Perception-action-coupling refers to the vicarious activation of the neural system for action during perception of action, and is considered important for forms of interpersonal sensitivity, including empathy. We hypothesize that perception-action-coupling is limited to the ingroup: neural motor networks will fire upon the perception of action, but only when the object-person belongs to the ingroup; if the object-person belongs to an outgroup these motor-neurons will not fire. Using electroencephalographic oscillations as an index of perception-action-coupling, we found exactly this: Participants displayed activity over motor-cortex when acting and when observing ingroups act, but not when observing outgroups - an effect magnified by prejudice and for disliked groups (South-Asians, then Blacks, followed by East-Asians). These findings provide evidence from brain activity for yet another detrimental aspect of prejudice: A spontaneous and implicit simulation of others' action states may be limited to close others and, without active effort, may not be available for outgroups.
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Crossing the ‘uncanny valley': Adaptation to cartoon faces can influence perception of human faces
Haiwen Chen, Richard Russell, Ken Nakayama & Margaret Livingstone
Perception, March 2010, Pages 378-386
Abstract:
In this study we assessed whether there is a single face space common to both human and cartoon faces by testing whether adaptation to cartoon faces can affect perception of human faces. Participants were shown Japanese animation cartoon videos containing faces with abnormally large eyes. The use of animated videos eliminated the possibility of position-dependent retinotopic adaptation (because the faces appear at many different locations) and more closely simulated naturalistic exposure. Adaptation to cartoon faces with large eyes significantly shifted preferences for human faces toward larger eyes, consistent with a common, non-retinotopic representation for both cartoon and human faces. This supports the possibility that there are representations that are specific to faces yet common to all kinds of faces.
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Is it Real, or is it Randomized?: A Financial Turing Test
Jasmina Hasanhodzic, Andrew Lo & Emanuele Viola
MIT Working Paper, February 2010
Abstract:
We construct a financial "Turing test" to determine whether human subjects can differentiate between actual vs. randomized financial returns. The experiment consists of an online video-game where players are challenged to distinguish actual financial market returns from random temporal permutations of those returns. We find overwhelming statistical evidence (p-values no greater than 0.5%) that subjects can consistently distinguish between the two types of time series, thereby refuting the widespread belief that financial markets "look random". A key feature of the experiment is that subjects are given immediate feedback regarding the validity of their choices, allowing them to learn and adapt. We suggest that such novel interfaces can harness human capabilities to process and extract information from financial data in ways that computers cannot.
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Hand dominance influences the processing of observed bodies
Mark Gardner & Rosalind Potts
Brain and Cognition, forthcoming
Abstract:
In motor tasks, subgroups of lefthanders have been shown to differ in the distribution of attention about their own bodies. The present experiment examined whether similar attentional biases also apply when processing observed bodies. Sixteen right handers (RHs), 22 consistent left handers (CLHs) and 11 relatively ambidextrous inconsistent left handers (ILHs) performed an own body transformation task in which they were instructed to make speeded left-right judgements about a schematic human figure. Attentional biases associated with handedness were found to extend to observed bodies: CLHs' judgements were faster to the figure's left side, while ILHs, like RHs, showed facilitated performance to the figure's right side. These results demonstrate a novel embodiment effect whereby the processing of a static schematic human figure is modulated by an individual's personal motor capabilities. This finding suggests that motor simulation may contribute to whole body perception in the absence of actual or implied actions.
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Human memory strength is predicted by theta-frequency phase-locking of single neurons
Ueli Rutishauser, Ian Ross, Adam Mamelak & Erin Schuman
Nature, forthcoming
Abstract:
Learning from novel experiences is a major task of the central nervous system. In mammals, the medial temporal lobe is crucial for this rapid form of learning. The modification of synapses and neuronal circuits through plasticity is thought to underlie memory formation. The induction of synaptic plasticity is favoured by coordinated action-potential timing across populations of neurons. Such coordinated activity of neural populations can give rise to oscillations of different frequencies, recorded in local field potentials. Brain oscillations in the theta frequency range (3-8 Hz) are often associated with the favourable induction of synaptic plasticity as well as behavioural memory. Here we report the activity of single neurons recorded together with the local field potential in humans engaged in a learning task. We show that successful memory formation in humans is predicted by a tight coordination of spike timing with the local theta oscillation. More stereotyped spiking predicts better memory, as indicated by higher retrieval confidence reported by subjects. These findings provide a link between the known modulation of theta oscillations by many memory-modulating behaviours and circuit mechanisms of plasticity.
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Sponsorship, Ambushing, and Counter-Strategy: Effects Upon Memory for Sponsor and Event
Michael Humphreys, Bettina Cornwell, Anna McAlister, Sarah Kelly, Emerald Quinn & Krista Murray
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, March 2010, Pages 96-108
Abstract:
Corporate sponsorship of sports, causes, and the arts has become a mainstream communications tool worldwide. The unique marketing opportunities associated with major events also attract nonsponsoring companies seeking to form associations with the event (ambushing). There are strategies available to brands and events which have been ambushed; however, there is only limited information about the effects of those strategies on attainment of sponsorship objectives. In Experiment 1, university staff and students participated by studying paragraphs linking a sponsor to a novel event. Relative to each sponsor-event pair, they then studied one of three different messages about a competitor. Results find a message which linked the competitor and the event increased competitor recall given the event as a cue and event recall given the competitor as a cue. These effects were moderated if there was information about the competitor not being the sponsor. In Experiment 2 ambushing and counter-ambushing information was presented over 2 days. Both types of messages increased competitor recall given the event as a cue and event recall given the competitor as a cue. In addition, "not sponsor" information was not always used even when it should have been recallable. The results can be explained if participants are using three cues: a specific cue such as a brand name, a contextual cue, and a category cue, such as the concept of an event. Findings suggest to sponsoring firms and event properties that counter-ambushing communications may have the unintended effect of strengthening an ambusher-event relationship in memory.
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What's on your mind: The influence of the contents of working memory on choice
Starla Weaver & Catherine Arrington
Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, April 2010, Pages 726-737
Abstract:
Information maintained in working memory (WM) has the potential to bias selective attention and limit executive attention. The current study assessed the influence of information in WM on the tasks one chooses to perform in a multitasking environment. Participants held either identities or locations in WM while performing voluntary task-switching trials on stimuli that did or did not match the information they were attempting to maintain. A bias toward performing the task associated with stimuli that had recently been encoded into WM was found. The results suggest that information in WM can influence choice within a multitasking environment.
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Deactivation in the sensorimotor area during observation of a human agent performing robotic actions
Sotaro Shimada
Brain and Cognition, April 2010, Pages 394-399
Abstract:
It is well established that several motor areas, called the mirror-neuron system (MNS), are activated when an individual observes other's actions. However, whether the MNS responds similarly to robotic actions compared with human actions is still controversial. The present study investigated whether and how the motor area activity is influenced by appearance (human vs. robot) and/or kinematics (human vs. robot) of the observed action using near-infrared spectroscopy. The results showed that there was a strong interaction between these factors, revealing strong deactivations in sensorimotor areas when the subject saw a human agent performing robotic actions, which was significantly different from responses when observing the human agent acting in a human way and the robot agent performing robotic actions. These results indicate that MNS activity is sensitive to congruency between the appearance and kinematics of the agent, especially when the agent has a human appearance. We discuss the experience-dependent characteristics of MNS sensitivity to observed actions.
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Stress impairs retrieval of socially relevant information
Christian Merz, Oliver Wolf & Jurgen Hennig
Behavioral Neuroscience, April 2010, Pages 288-293
Abstract:
Several studies have reported that stress impairs memory retrieval, even though findings are not unequivocal. Moreover, memory for socially relevant information was not previously investigated. The present study aimed to test the effects of stress on the retrieval of social memory (e.g., memory concerning names, birthdays, or biographies). In a randomized cross-over experiment, the cognitive performance of 29 subjects (15 women) was tested twice. Social memory was tested in a stress session, in which participants were exposed to a brief standardized psychosocial laboratory stressor between encoding and retrieval. Performance was compared with a stress-free control session. Stress exposure caused an increase in cortisol concentrations and changes in several mood measures. Social memory retrieval was reduced in the stress compared with the control session. An association between the cortisol stress response and poorer retrieval was significant in responders, that is, those participants displaying a cortisol rise after stress onset. Thus, similar to other forms of declarative memory, the retrieval of declarative memory for socially relevant information learned from biographical notes is impaired after acute stress exposure. This effect is linked to the stress-induced cortisol increase.