Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology最新文献

In perception experiments, researchers often collect multiple perceptual judgments from the same stimuli and participants to answer their research questions. While the way in which perceptual judgements are collected may affect the data, research rarely considers task design when investigating this topic. We therefore investigated how two frequently used ways of collecting multiple ratings for affect perceptual judgements, focusing on first impressions of faces. One participant group provided ratings of seven person characteristics (e.g. femininity, youthfulness, trustworthiness) blocked by characteristic, rating faces for one person characteristic at a time, across seven blocks. Another participant group completed one block in which they rated all seven characteristics simultaneously via a list of rating scales. The listed presentation format reduced task duration by 22%, but affected the perceptual ratings in several ways, pointing to reduced data quality, potentially as a result of satisficing behaviours. Inter-rater agreement was lower for some person characteristics (youthfulness, femininity, and trustworthiness) in the listed format. Variance in ratings was also reduced for youthfulness, femininity, and dominance, with ratings clustering closer to the middle of the scale. Importantly, correlations between different person characteristics became universally positive in the listed format, indicating reduced independence of judgments. These findings highlight that while presenting multiple judgments may offer efficiency, this approach can introduce systematic biases and potentially reduce the reliability of perceptual data. We therefore suggest using a blocked presentation format and consider how these trade-offs would impact experiments looking at multiple perceptual judgements collected from the same participants.

Interaction with objects typically involves both vision and touch. Understanding how visual and haptic information interact during object exploration is essential to uncovering the mechanisms of multisensory shape perception. We investigated whether haptic exploration influences subsequent eye movements, using a cross-modal shape comparison task. Participants (N = 22) explored 3D replicas of bell peppers either haptically or visually, and subsequently viewed the same or a different object. We tracked eye movements during visual explorations. Comparing uni-modal visual to cross-modal, haptic-to-visual conditions, we found that prior haptic exploration led to significantly shorter fixations, longer and faster saccades as well as larger coverage of the image with fixations during subsequent visual exploration - indicative of a broader, more distributed scanning patterns. These effects suggest that visual saliency is modulated by prior tactile experience, challenging purely unimodal or bottom-up models of attentional guidance.

Previous research has confirmed the effect of monetary reward on selective attention, but the influence of social reward has yet to be fully investigated. To address this issue, we employed a modified two-rectangle paradigm paired with the monetary incentive delay task or social incentive delay task. In this paradigm, reward cues were implemented symbolically and were not linked to performance-based rewards. In Experiment 1, the relative value of monetary reward diminished object-based attention without affecting space-based attention. In Experiment 2, the stability of the space-based attention effect was confirmed, but the elimination of the object-based attention effect due to the relative value of non-verbal social reward was only observed in women. In Experiment 3, we found that verbal social reward resulted in similar effects as monetary reward in Experiment 1 when non-verbal information bias was controlled. The results contribute further evidence to the extended common currency schema and are consistent with the view from prospect theory that relative, context-dependent value can influence early attentional processing across different reward types.

We conducted a cued target localization experiment to examine inhibition of return (IOR) in a computer-simulated three-dimensional (3D) environment. Cues and targets were presented either on the same or different depth planes, and on the same or opposite sides. In trials where cues and targets were at different depths, they were positioned either within a single object extending across depth or across two distinct objects separated along the depth axis. IOR was reduced when the cue appeared farther than the subsequent target (a far-to-near switch), compared to when both appeared at the same depth. Notably, this depth-specific reduction in IOR only emerged when the cue and target appeared between different objects, not when they were part of the same object. In contrast, no such effect was found for near-to-far depth switches. These findings suggest that IOR can be modulated by both depth and object structure, but only under specific spatial configurations-particularly when attention shifts from a farther to a nearer location across separate objects.

The peripersonal space is a multisensory interface between the body and the environment, which can be modulated by the presence of objects or other agents. However, how the presence of artificial agents affect the representation of peripersonal space is still poorly understood. We conducted four experiments in which participants had to judge objects' reachability for themselves or for another agent. In Experiment 1, participants performed the reachability task alone. In Experiment 2, participants interacted with another human partner. Experiment 2b was a control condition to test task's physical properties. In Experiment 3, participants performed the task with the humanoid robot iCub, programmed to exhibit motor and social behaviours. The results showed that the extent of the peripersonal space was influenced by the presence of another agent, as participants narrowed their own peripersonal space in a social context, compared to performing the task alone. Furthermore, they perceived their own peripersonal space as larger, compared to the peripersonal space of another human agent (Experiment 2) or humanoid robot (Experiment 3). This suggests that the motor repertoire of a human and a humanoid embodied artificial agent are similarly perceived. The present evidence may open new avenues for space perception in social interactions.

Losses and errors often slow down subsequent reaction times (RTs). This is classically explained in terms of a shift towards more cautious, therefore slow, behaviour. Recent studies of gambling, however, reported faster RTs following losses, so-called post-loss speeding, often attributing these to behavioural impulsivity arising from frustration. Here we instead investigated post-loss speeding in the context of a task that allowed behavioural adaptation and learning, namely probabilistic reversal learning (PRL). We additionally used electroencephalography (EEG) to investigate how losses influence subsequent markers of action generation (readiness potential [RP]) and outcome evaluation (feedback-related negativity [FRN] and P300). Our results confirm faster RTs after losses than after wins in PRL, thus extending post-loss speeding from gambling to cognitive contexts where learning is possible. Previous losses did not affect subsequent RP amplitudes. However, compared to wins, previous losses led to more positive FRN and more positive P300 amplitudes elicited by subsequent outcomes. Furthermore, faster RTs were associated with more negative FRN amplitudes irrespective of previous or outcome valence. We hypothesise that post-loss speeding in PRL may represent a form of signal chasing, allowing participants to behaviourally modulate neurophysiological responses and thereby potentially establish agency by influencing internal neurophysiological signals.

Can personality, known to shape emotional experiences and gaze behaviors, influence the recognition of subtle emotional facial expressions? Do these personality-related gaze patterns change with emotional intensity? To explore this, we conducted an eye-tracking experiment with 116 participants who identified dynamic emotional facial expressions of varying intensities (anger, fear, disgust, happiness). Using a multidimensional approach to personality, we clustered participants based on Big Five personality dimensions and anxiety scores, distinguishing those scoring high in dimensions associated with positive (extroversion, agreeableness) versus negative emotions (neuroticism, social anxiety). Results showed that individuals with a positively-colored personality focused more on the mouth (likely seeking happiness cues), while those with a negatively-colored personality focused more on the eyes (likely seeking signs of negative emotions). However, at higher intensity, these gaze patterns persisted only when emotions matched participants' personality (individuals with a negatively-colored personality focused more on the eyes than others, but only when viewing fear or anger). Yet, personality did not affect the sensory discrimination or decision-making processes for subtle emotion identification. Thus, personality, as a multidimensional construct, seems to influence gaze strategies, facilitating emotionally congruent experiences without hindering the recognition of others' emotions, even subtle ones, which is crucial for effective social interactions.

In a spatial Stroop task, responses to gaze stimuli are faster when the direction and location are incongruent (reversed congruency effect), whereas responses to arrow stimuli are faster when congruent (standard congruency effect). To explain the reversal of gaze, Tanaka et al. proposed a dual-stage hypothesis comprising target-background segregation and selective inhibition. This hypothesis predicts that the enhancement of selective inhibition reduces and increases the standard and reversed congruency effects, respectively. As selective inhibition varies on a trial-by-trial basis, we tested the dual-stage hypothesis by examining congruency sequence effects (CSE) in the spatial Stroop task. We analysed the data collected from 409 participants previously tested in our laboratory. The results showed a decrease in the standard congruency effect (standard CSE) and an increase in the reversed congruency effect (reversed CSE) after incongruent trials (N - 1 incongruent) relative to congruent trials (N - 1 congruent). Reaction time distribution analysis revealed that these CSEs emerged from faster responses, suggesting that conflict monitoring in preceding trials enhanced inhibition efficiency in the current trials. These results highlighted the role of selective inhibition in the dual-stage hypothesis. Selective inhibition dynamically changes its size and onset depending on the preceding trial type and contributes to these sequential effects.

Aesthetic Cognitivism posits that artworks have the potential to enhance open-mindedness. However, this claim has not yet been explored empirically. Here, we present two experiments that investigate the extent to which two formal features of the film - temporal and perspectival complexity - can 'open our minds'. In Experiment 1, we manipulated the temporal complexity of the film. Participants (N_total = 100) watched a film (Memento) either in its original non-chronological order or the same film in chronological order. In Experiment 2, we manipulated perspectival complexity in film. Participants (N_total = 100) watched an excerpt from a film (Jackie Brown) that either included the perspectives of multiple characters on an event or a single character's perspective on the same event. Film conditions in both experiments were further compared with a control condition in which participants did not watch a film (N = 50). Participants' open-mindedness was assessed in both experiments through four empirical indicators (creativity, imaginability, cognitive flexibility, openness to new evidence) and in Experiment 2, participants' eye movements, heart rate and electrodermal activity were measured while watching the film. Results showed that watching films, regardless of their temporal or perspectival complexity, modulated only one facet of open-mindedness - cognitive flexibility - when compared to the no-film control condition, providing only limited support for the aesthetic cognitivist claim that artistic films can 'open our minds'. Real-time measures in Experiment 2 revealed that pupil size and number of fixations were modulated by perspectival complexity: both were smaller when watching a film from multiple perspectives compared to a single perspective. Possible explanations for this difference are examined in relation to the viewers' cognitive processes involved in understanding and interpreting film content.

Research suggests that faces learned in high variability conditions (pictures taken on different days, with different viewpoints and lighting) enhanced the learning of own-race identities compared to low variability conditions (pictures taken on the same day, with similar lighting). However, it remains unclear how this variability affects the learning of other-race faces, as they are recognized differently compared to own-race faces. Thus, this study aims to examine the effect of high and low variability exposure on both own-race and other-race face learning. Chinese Malaysian and White participants were exposed to own- and other-race identities under high and low variability conditions. Identity recognition was assessed using a name verification task (Experiment 1) and an old-new recognition paradigm (Experiment 2). Results revealed enhanced learning of own-race faces under high variability conditions compared to low variability across both experiments. However, improved learning of other-race faces was evident only in the old-new recognition paradigm, not in the name verification task. These findings suggest that high variability exposure benefits other-race face recognition but not the face-name association for other-race identities.