Nonsense
"What Smell?" Temporarily Loading Visual Attention Induces a Prolonged Loss of Olfactory Awareness
Sophie Forster & Charles Spence
Psychological Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
The human sense of smell is highly sensitive, often conveying important biological signals. Yet anecdotal evidence suggests that we commonly fail to notice suprathreshold environmental olfactory stimuli. The determinants of olfactory awareness are, as yet, unknown. Here, we adapted the inattentional-blindness paradigm to test whether olfactory awareness is dependent on attention. Across three experiments, participants performed a visual search task with either a high or low perceptual load (a well-established attentional manipulation) while exposed to an ambient coffee aroma. Consistent with our hypothesis, results showed that task load modulated olfactory awareness: 42.5% fewer participants in the high- than in the low-load condition reported noticing the coffee aroma. Our final experiment demonstrates that because of unique characteristics of olfactory habituation, the consequences of inattentional anosmia can persist even once attention becomes available. These findings establish the phenomenon of inattentional anosmia and have applied implications for predicting when people may miss potentially important olfactory information.
Sustained effects of prior red light on pupil diameter and vigilance during subsequent darkness
Wisse van der Meijden et al.
Proceedings of the Royal Society: Biological Sciences, 25 July 2018
Abstract:
Environmental light can exert potent effects on physiology and behaviour, including pupil size, vigilance and sleep. Previous work showed that these non-image forming effects can last long beyond discontinuation of short-wavelength light exposure. The possible functional effects after switching off long-wavelength light, however, have been insufficiently characterized. In a series of controlled experiments in healthy adult volunteers, we evaluated the effects of five minutes of intense red light on physiology and performance during subsequent darkness. As compared to prior darkness, prior red light induced a subsequent sustained pupil dilation. Prior red light also increased subsequent heart rate and heart rate variability when subjects were asked to perform a sustained vigilance task during the dark exposure. While these changes suggest an increase in the mental effort required for the task, it could not prevent a post-red slowing of response speed. The suggestion that exposure to intense red light affects vigilance during subsequent darkness, was confirmed in a controlled polysomnographic study that indeed showed a post-red facilitation of sleep onset. Our findings suggest the possibility of using red light as a nightcap.
Do better in math: How your body posture may change stereotype threat response
Erik Peper et al.
NeuroRegulation, Summer 2018, Pages 67-74.
Abstract:
This study investigates posture on mental math performance. 125 students (M = 23.5 years) participated as part of a class activity. Half the students sat in an erect position while the other half sat in a slouched position and were asked to mentally subtract 7 serially from 964 for 30 seconds. They then reversed the positions before repeating the math subtraction task beginning at 834. They rated the math task difficulty on a scale from 0 (none) to 10 (extreme). The math test was rated significantly more difficult while sitting slouched (M = 6.2) than while sitting erect (M = 4.9) ANOVA [F(1,243) = 17.06, p < 0.001]. Participants with the highest test anxiety, math difficulty and blanking out scores (TAMDBOS) rated the math task significantly more difficult in the slouched position (M = 7.0) as compared to the erect position (M = 4.8) ANOVA [F(1,75) = 17.85, p < 0.001]. Tor the participants with the lowest 30% TAMDBOS, there was no significant difference between slouched (M=4.90) and erect positions (M = 4.0). The participants with the highest TAMDBOS experienced significantly more somatic symptoms as compared with the lowest TAMDBOS. Discussed are processes such as stereotypic threat associated with a 'defense reaction' by which posture can affect mental math and inhibit abstract thinking. Moreover, clinicians who work with students who have learning difficulty may improve outcome if they include posture changes.
A Quiet Disquiet: Anxiety and Risk Avoidance due to Nonconscious Auditory Priming
Michael Lowe, Katherine Loveland & Aradhna Krishna
Journal of Consumer Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
"Hearing" is our highly sensitive warning system. As a sense, hearing has uniquely evolved to perform this alerting function and is perceptive to subtle ambient cues which are associated with threat. We propose that one aspect of sound which may cue such associations is "pitch" - such that low pitch (versus moderate pitch) background sound nonconsciously primes a threat response resulting in heightened anxiety among consumers. Furthermore, this emotional response manifests itself in the form of increased risk avoidance. Seven studies in varied domains demonstrate that low (versus moderate) pitch background sound results in higher anxiety, which leads to risk avoidant consumer choices; for instance, being willing to pay more for car insurance or choosing a food option with lower taste uncertainty.
The effect of hunger and satiety in the judgment of ethical violations
Carmelo Vicario et al.
Brain and Cognition, August 2018, Pages 32-36
Abstract:
Human history is studded with instances where instinctive motivations take precedence over ethical choices. Nevertheless, the evidence of any linking between motivational states and morality has never been systematically explored. Here we addressed this topic by testing a possible linking between appetite and moral judgment. We compared moral disapproval ratings (MDR) for stories of ethical violations in participants under fasting and after having eaten a snack. Our results show that subjective hunger, measured via self-reported rating, reduces MDR for ethical violations. Moreover, the higher the disgust sensitivity the higher the MDR for ethical violations. This study adds new insights to research on physiological processes influencing morality by showing that appetite affects moral disapproval of ethical violations.
Decision-making Increases Episodic Memory via Postencoding Consolidation
Vishnu Murty, Sarah DuBrow & Lila Davachi
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, forthcoming
Abstract:
The ability for individuals to actively make decisions engages regions within the mesolimbic system and enhances memory for chosen items. In other behavioral contexts, mesolimbic engagement has been shown to enhance episodic memory by supporting consolidation. However, research has yet to investigate how consolidation may support interactions between decision-making and episodic memory. Across two studies, participants encoded items that were covered by occluder screens and could either actively decide which of two items to uncover or were preselected by the experimenter. In Study 1, we show that active decision-making reduces forgetting rates across an immediate and 24-hr memory test, a behavioral marker of consolidation. In Study 2, we use functional neuroimaging to characterize putative neural markers of memory consolidation by measuring interactions between the hippocampus and perirhinal cortex (PRC) during a postencoding period that reexposed participants to elements of the decision-making context without exposing them to memoranda. We show that choice-related striatal engagement is associated with increased postencoding hippocampal-PRC interactions. Finally, we show that a previous reported relationship between choice-related striatal engagement and long-term memory is accounted for by these postencoding hippocampal-PRC interactions. Together, these findings support a model by which actively deciding to encode information enhances memory consolidation to preserve episodic memory for outcomes, a process that may be facilitated by reexposure to the original decision-making context.