Pub Date : 2024-08-20DOI: 10.1038/s44271-024-00131-3
Katarina Begus, Elizabeth Bonawitz
This study investigates 16-month-old infants’ sensitivity to the informativeness of evidence and its potential link to infants’ ability to draw accurate causal inferences and predict unfolding events. Employing concurrent EEG and eye tracking, data from 66 infants revealed significantly increased theta oscillatory activity when infants expected to see causally unconfounded evidence compared to confounded evidence, suggesting heightened cognitive engagement in anticipation of informative evidence. Crucially, this difference was more pronounced in the subset of infants who later made correct predictions, suggesting that they had correctly inferred the causal structure based on the evidence presented. This research sheds light on infants’ motivation to seek explanatory causal information, suggesting that even at 16 months, infants can strategically direct attention to situations conducive to acquiring informative evidence, potentially laying the groundwork for the impressive abilities of humans to rapidly acquire knowledge and develop causal theories of the world. 16-month-old infants showed heightened theta oscillations for informative versus uninformative causal evidence. This relationship was more pronounced in infants who subsequently made correct predictions based on this information.
{"title":"Infants evaluate informativeness of evidence and predict causal events as revealed in theta oscillations and predictive looking","authors":"Katarina Begus, Elizabeth Bonawitz","doi":"10.1038/s44271-024-00131-3","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44271-024-00131-3","url":null,"abstract":"This study investigates 16-month-old infants’ sensitivity to the informativeness of evidence and its potential link to infants’ ability to draw accurate causal inferences and predict unfolding events. Employing concurrent EEG and eye tracking, data from 66 infants revealed significantly increased theta oscillatory activity when infants expected to see causally unconfounded evidence compared to confounded evidence, suggesting heightened cognitive engagement in anticipation of informative evidence. Crucially, this difference was more pronounced in the subset of infants who later made correct predictions, suggesting that they had correctly inferred the causal structure based on the evidence presented. This research sheds light on infants’ motivation to seek explanatory causal information, suggesting that even at 16 months, infants can strategically direct attention to situations conducive to acquiring informative evidence, potentially laying the groundwork for the impressive abilities of humans to rapidly acquire knowledge and develop causal theories of the world. 16-month-old infants showed heightened theta oscillations for informative versus uninformative causal evidence. This relationship was more pronounced in infants who subsequently made correct predictions based on this information.","PeriodicalId":501698,"journal":{"name":"Communications Psychology","volume":" ","pages":"1-9"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-08-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s44271-024-00131-3.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142013704","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-08-15DOI: 10.1038/s44271-024-00125-1
Ana-Maria Bliuc, John M. Betts, Matteo Vergani, Ayoub Bouguettaya, Mioara Cristea
We propose a framework integrating insights from computational social science, political, and social psychology to explain how extreme polarization can occur in deeply divided societies. Extreme polarization in a society emerges through a dynamic and complex process where societal, group, and individual factors interact. Dissent at different levels of analysis represents the driver of this process, where societal-level ideological dissent divides society into opposing camps, each with contrasting collective narratives. Within these opposing camps, further dissent leads to the formation of splinter factions and radical cells—sub-groups with increasingly extreme views. At the group level, collective narratives underpinning group identity become more extreme as society fragments. At the individual level, this process involves the internalization of an extreme group narrative and norms sanctioning radical behavior. The intense bonding within these groups and the convergence of personal and group identities through identity fusion increase the likelihood of radical group behavior. A theoretical framework informed by computational social science and social psychology explains the process of polarization as the gradual fragmentation of a divided society.
{"title":"A theoretical framework for polarization as the gradual fragmentation of a divided society","authors":"Ana-Maria Bliuc, John M. Betts, Matteo Vergani, Ayoub Bouguettaya, Mioara Cristea","doi":"10.1038/s44271-024-00125-1","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44271-024-00125-1","url":null,"abstract":"We propose a framework integrating insights from computational social science, political, and social psychology to explain how extreme polarization can occur in deeply divided societies. Extreme polarization in a society emerges through a dynamic and complex process where societal, group, and individual factors interact. Dissent at different levels of analysis represents the driver of this process, where societal-level ideological dissent divides society into opposing camps, each with contrasting collective narratives. Within these opposing camps, further dissent leads to the formation of splinter factions and radical cells—sub-groups with increasingly extreme views. At the group level, collective narratives underpinning group identity become more extreme as society fragments. At the individual level, this process involves the internalization of an extreme group narrative and norms sanctioning radical behavior. The intense bonding within these groups and the convergence of personal and group identities through identity fusion increase the likelihood of radical group behavior. A theoretical framework informed by computational social science and social psychology explains the process of polarization as the gradual fragmentation of a divided society.","PeriodicalId":501698,"journal":{"name":"Communications Psychology","volume":" ","pages":"1-10"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-08-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s44271-024-00125-1.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141986138","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-08-14DOI: 10.1038/s44271-024-00121-5
Sacha Altay, Andrea De Angelis, Emma Hoes
Media literacy tips typically encourage people to be skeptical of the news despite the small prevalence of false news in Western democracies. Would such tips be effective if they promoted trust in true news instead? A pre-registered experiment (N = 3919, US) showed that Skepticism-enhancing tips, Trust-inducing tips, and a mix of both tips, increased participants’ sharing and accuracy discernment. The Trust-inducing tips boosted true news sharing and acceptance, the Skepticism-enhancing tips hindered false news sharing and acceptance, while the Mixed tips did both. Yet, the effects of the tips were more alike than different, with very similar effect sizes across conditions for true and false news. We experimentally manipulated the proportion of true and false news participants were exposed to. The Trust and Skepticism tips were most effective when participants were exposed to equal proportions of true and false news, while the Mixed tips were most effective when exposed to 75% of true news - the most realistic proportion. Moreover, the Trust-inducing tips increased trust in traditional media. Overall, we show that to be most effective, media literacy tips should aim both to foster skepticism towards false news and to promote trust in true news. Media literacy tips promoting trust in true news, skepticism of false news, or a mix of both, were all effective in improving discernment between true and false news stories relative to a control condition without tips.
{"title":"Media literacy tips promoting reliable news improve discernment and enhance trust in traditional media","authors":"Sacha Altay, Andrea De Angelis, Emma Hoes","doi":"10.1038/s44271-024-00121-5","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44271-024-00121-5","url":null,"abstract":"Media literacy tips typically encourage people to be skeptical of the news despite the small prevalence of false news in Western democracies. Would such tips be effective if they promoted trust in true news instead? A pre-registered experiment (N = 3919, US) showed that Skepticism-enhancing tips, Trust-inducing tips, and a mix of both tips, increased participants’ sharing and accuracy discernment. The Trust-inducing tips boosted true news sharing and acceptance, the Skepticism-enhancing tips hindered false news sharing and acceptance, while the Mixed tips did both. Yet, the effects of the tips were more alike than different, with very similar effect sizes across conditions for true and false news. We experimentally manipulated the proportion of true and false news participants were exposed to. The Trust and Skepticism tips were most effective when participants were exposed to equal proportions of true and false news, while the Mixed tips were most effective when exposed to 75% of true news - the most realistic proportion. Moreover, the Trust-inducing tips increased trust in traditional media. Overall, we show that to be most effective, media literacy tips should aim both to foster skepticism towards false news and to promote trust in true news. Media literacy tips promoting trust in true news, skepticism of false news, or a mix of both, were all effective in improving discernment between true and false news stories relative to a control condition without tips.","PeriodicalId":501698,"journal":{"name":"Communications Psychology","volume":" ","pages":"1-9"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-08-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s44271-024-00121-5.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141986139","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-08-07DOI: 10.1038/s44271-024-00122-4
Annah G. McCurry, Robert C. May, David I. Donaldson
Researchers examining conflict between intimate partners believe that the experience and expression of emotion drives aggressive behaviour. Intra-personally, increases in negative affect make aggression more likely. Inter-personally, theoretical models suggest that each individuals’ perception of their partners’ emotion also influences aggression, potentially creating a Violence Escalation Cycle. Here, using a lab-based aggression task across a primary study (n = 104, number of trials = 3095) and a replication (n = 58, number of trials = 3167), we show that both intra- and inter-personal experiences of negative emotion predict reactive aggression within couples, revealing retaliation but not escalation. Critically, analyses of facial affect reveal that prototypic displays of negative emotions have a compounding effect, leading to dramatic changes in aggression depending on whether one, both, or neither partner expressed negative emotion. We propose a mechanism by which temporal delays (i.e., experimentally imposed forced breaks) reduce aggression by decreasing negative emotional arousal and limiting impulsive action. Our results show that both forced breaks and elective breaks (i.e., extra participant-initiated extensions of the forced break time) reduce aggression, providing exciting evidence that interventions focused on preventing impulsive action when people are in a provoked state can reduce aggression within couples. Couples competing in a reaction time task where they can play loud sounds to their partner are more aggressive when negative facial affect is expressed. Couples retaliate, but introducing short breaks reduces negative affect and aggressive behaviour.
{"title":"Both partners’ negative emotion drives aggression during couples’ conflict","authors":"Annah G. McCurry, Robert C. May, David I. Donaldson","doi":"10.1038/s44271-024-00122-4","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44271-024-00122-4","url":null,"abstract":"Researchers examining conflict between intimate partners believe that the experience and expression of emotion drives aggressive behaviour. Intra-personally, increases in negative affect make aggression more likely. Inter-personally, theoretical models suggest that each individuals’ perception of their partners’ emotion also influences aggression, potentially creating a Violence Escalation Cycle. Here, using a lab-based aggression task across a primary study (n = 104, number of trials = 3095) and a replication (n = 58, number of trials = 3167), we show that both intra- and inter-personal experiences of negative emotion predict reactive aggression within couples, revealing retaliation but not escalation. Critically, analyses of facial affect reveal that prototypic displays of negative emotions have a compounding effect, leading to dramatic changes in aggression depending on whether one, both, or neither partner expressed negative emotion. We propose a mechanism by which temporal delays (i.e., experimentally imposed forced breaks) reduce aggression by decreasing negative emotional arousal and limiting impulsive action. Our results show that both forced breaks and elective breaks (i.e., extra participant-initiated extensions of the forced break time) reduce aggression, providing exciting evidence that interventions focused on preventing impulsive action when people are in a provoked state can reduce aggression within couples. Couples competing in a reaction time task where they can play loud sounds to their partner are more aggressive when negative facial affect is expressed. Couples retaliate, but introducing short breaks reduces negative affect and aggressive behaviour.","PeriodicalId":501698,"journal":{"name":"Communications Psychology","volume":" ","pages":"1-16"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-08-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s44271-024-00122-4.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141968504","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-08-05DOI: 10.1038/s44271-024-00116-2
Marieke S. Wieringa, Barbara C. N. Müller, Gijsbert Bijlstra, Tibor Bosse
The harm-made mind phenomenon implies that witnessing intentional harm towards agents with ambiguous minds, such as robots, leads to augmented mind perception in these agents. We conducted two replications of previous work on this effect and extended it by testing if robots that detect and simulate emotions elicit a stronger harm-made mind effect than robots that do not. Additionally, we explored if someone is perceived as less prosocial when harming a robot compared to treating it kindly. The harm made mind-effect was replicated: participants attributed a higher capacity to experience pain to the robot when it was harmed, compared to when it was not harmed. We did not find evidence that this effect was influenced by the robot’s ability to detect and simulate emotions. There were significant but conflicting direct and indirect effects of harm on the perception of mind in the robot: while harm had a positive indirect effect on mind perception in the robot through the perceived capacity for pain, the direct effect of harm on mind perception was negative. This suggests that robots are both anthropomorphized and dehumanized when harmed intentionally. Additionally, the results showed that someone is perceived as less prosocial when harming a robot compared to treating it kindly. A replication of the harm-made mind effect finds conflicting effects of harm on the perception of mind in robots —robots were both anthropomorphized and dehumanized when harmed intentionally while the harmer was perceived as less prosocial.
{"title":"Robots are both anthropomorphized and dehumanized when harmed intentionally","authors":"Marieke S. Wieringa, Barbara C. N. Müller, Gijsbert Bijlstra, Tibor Bosse","doi":"10.1038/s44271-024-00116-2","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44271-024-00116-2","url":null,"abstract":"The harm-made mind phenomenon implies that witnessing intentional harm towards agents with ambiguous minds, such as robots, leads to augmented mind perception in these agents. We conducted two replications of previous work on this effect and extended it by testing if robots that detect and simulate emotions elicit a stronger harm-made mind effect than robots that do not. Additionally, we explored if someone is perceived as less prosocial when harming a robot compared to treating it kindly. The harm made mind-effect was replicated: participants attributed a higher capacity to experience pain to the robot when it was harmed, compared to when it was not harmed. We did not find evidence that this effect was influenced by the robot’s ability to detect and simulate emotions. There were significant but conflicting direct and indirect effects of harm on the perception of mind in the robot: while harm had a positive indirect effect on mind perception in the robot through the perceived capacity for pain, the direct effect of harm on mind perception was negative. This suggests that robots are both anthropomorphized and dehumanized when harmed intentionally. Additionally, the results showed that someone is perceived as less prosocial when harming a robot compared to treating it kindly. A replication of the harm-made mind effect finds conflicting effects of harm on the perception of mind in robots —robots were both anthropomorphized and dehumanized when harmed intentionally while the harmer was perceived as less prosocial.","PeriodicalId":501698,"journal":{"name":"Communications Psychology","volume":" ","pages":"1-11"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-08-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s44271-024-00116-2.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141968582","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Online communities have become a central part of the internet. Understanding what motivates users to join these communities, and how they affect them and others, spans various psychological domains, including organizational psychology, political and social psychology, and clinical and health psychology. We focus on online communities that are exemplary for three domains: work, hate, and addictions. We review the risks that emerge from these online communities but also recognize the opportunities that work and behavioral addiction communities present for groups and individuals. With the continued evolution of online spheres, online communities are likely to have an increasingly significant role in all spheres of life, ranging from personal to professional and from individual to societal. Psychological research provides critical insights into understanding the formation of online communities, and the implications for individuals and society. To counteract risks, it needs to identify opportunities for prevention and support. Online Communities play an increasing role in online behaviour and affect offline lives. Psychological research on online work communities, hate communities, and communities dedicated to behavioural addictions highlights risks and – in some cases - opportunities.
{"title":"Online communities come with real-world consequences for individuals and societies","authors":"Atte Oksanen, Magdalena Celuch, Reetta Oksa, Iina Savolainen","doi":"10.1038/s44271-024-00112-6","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44271-024-00112-6","url":null,"abstract":"Online communities have become a central part of the internet. Understanding what motivates users to join these communities, and how they affect them and others, spans various psychological domains, including organizational psychology, political and social psychology, and clinical and health psychology. We focus on online communities that are exemplary for three domains: work, hate, and addictions. We review the risks that emerge from these online communities but also recognize the opportunities that work and behavioral addiction communities present for groups and individuals. With the continued evolution of online spheres, online communities are likely to have an increasingly significant role in all spheres of life, ranging from personal to professional and from individual to societal. Psychological research provides critical insights into understanding the formation of online communities, and the implications for individuals and society. To counteract risks, it needs to identify opportunities for prevention and support. Online Communities play an increasing role in online behaviour and affect offline lives. Psychological research on online work communities, hate communities, and communities dedicated to behavioural addictions highlights risks and – in some cases - opportunities.","PeriodicalId":501698,"journal":{"name":"Communications Psychology","volume":" ","pages":"1-9"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-08-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s44271-024-00112-6.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141968583","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-08-01DOI: 10.1038/s44271-024-00117-1
Charlie Pilgrim, Weisi Guo, Thomas T. Hills
We present evidence that the word entropy of American English has been rising steadily since around 1900. We also find differences in word entropy between media categories, with short-form media such as news and magazines having higher entropy than long-form media, and social media feeds having higher entropy still. To explain these results we develop an ecological model of the attention economy that combines ideas from Zipf’s law and information foraging. In this model, media consumers maximize information utility rate taking into account the costs of information search, while media producers adapt to technologies that reduce search costs, driving them to generate higher entropy content in increasingly shorter formats. American English has become more information dense over the last 100 years, likely driven by competition for human attention.
{"title":"The rising entropy of English in the attention economy","authors":"Charlie Pilgrim, Weisi Guo, Thomas T. Hills","doi":"10.1038/s44271-024-00117-1","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44271-024-00117-1","url":null,"abstract":"We present evidence that the word entropy of American English has been rising steadily since around 1900. We also find differences in word entropy between media categories, with short-form media such as news and magazines having higher entropy than long-form media, and social media feeds having higher entropy still. To explain these results we develop an ecological model of the attention economy that combines ideas from Zipf’s law and information foraging. In this model, media consumers maximize information utility rate taking into account the costs of information search, while media producers adapt to technologies that reduce search costs, driving them to generate higher entropy content in increasingly shorter formats. American English has become more information dense over the last 100 years, likely driven by competition for human attention.","PeriodicalId":501698,"journal":{"name":"Communications Psychology","volume":" ","pages":"1-13"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s44271-024-00117-1.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141968585","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-08-01DOI: 10.1038/s44271-024-00120-6
H. T. McGovern, H. J. Grimmer, M. K. Doss, B. T. Hutchinson, C. Timmermann, A. Lyon, P. R. Corlett, R. E. Laukkonen
Psychedelics are recognised for their potential to re-orient beliefs. We propose a model of how psychedelics can, in some cases, lead to false insights and thus false beliefs. We first review experimental work on laboratory-based false insights and false memories. We then connect this to insights and belief formation under psychedelics using the active inference framework. We propose that subjective and brain-based alterations caused by psychedelics increases the quantity and subjective intensity of insights and thence beliefs, including false ones. We offer directions for future research in minimising the risk of false and potentially harmful beliefs arising from psychedelics. Ultimately, knowing how psychedelics may facilitate false insights and beliefs is crucial if we are to optimally leverage their therapeutic potential. The neurobiological action of psychedelics on the brain may increase the intensity of the experience of insight. Psychedelics can thus lead to flexible updating of beliefs, critically including the adoption of false beliefs.
{"title":"An Integrated theory of false insights and beliefs under psychedelics","authors":"H. T. McGovern, H. J. Grimmer, M. K. Doss, B. T. Hutchinson, C. Timmermann, A. Lyon, P. R. Corlett, R. E. Laukkonen","doi":"10.1038/s44271-024-00120-6","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44271-024-00120-6","url":null,"abstract":"Psychedelics are recognised for their potential to re-orient beliefs. We propose a model of how psychedelics can, in some cases, lead to false insights and thus false beliefs. We first review experimental work on laboratory-based false insights and false memories. We then connect this to insights and belief formation under psychedelics using the active inference framework. We propose that subjective and brain-based alterations caused by psychedelics increases the quantity and subjective intensity of insights and thence beliefs, including false ones. We offer directions for future research in minimising the risk of false and potentially harmful beliefs arising from psychedelics. Ultimately, knowing how psychedelics may facilitate false insights and beliefs is crucial if we are to optimally leverage their therapeutic potential. The neurobiological action of psychedelics on the brain may increase the intensity of the experience of insight. Psychedelics can thus lead to flexible updating of beliefs, critically including the adoption of false beliefs.","PeriodicalId":501698,"journal":{"name":"Communications Psychology","volume":" ","pages":"1-13"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s44271-024-00120-6.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141968584","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-07-26DOI: 10.1038/s44271-024-00119-z
Aylin Kallmayer, Melissa L.-H. Võ
Our visual surroundings are highly complex. Despite this, we understand and navigate them effortlessly. This requires transforming incoming sensory information into representations that not only span low- to high-level visual features (e.g., edges, object parts, objects), but likely also reflect co-occurrence statistics of objects in real-world scenes. Here, so-called anchor objects are defined as being highly predictive of the location and identity of frequently co-occuring (usually smaller) objects, derived from object clustering statistics in real-world scenes, while so-called diagnostic objects are predictive of the larger semantic context (i.e., scene category). Across two studies (N1 = 50, N2 = 44), we investigate which of these properties underlie scene understanding across two dimensions – realism and categorisation – using scenes generated from Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) which naturally vary along these dimensions. We show that anchor objects and mainly high-level features extracted from a range of pre-trained deep neural networks (DNNs) drove realism both at first glance and after initial processing. Categorisation performance was mainly determined by diagnostic objects, regardless of realism, at first glance and after initial processing. Our results are testament to the visual system’s ability to pick up on reliable, category specific sources of information that are flexible towards disturbances across the visual feature-hierarchy. Human observers rate Generative Adversarial Network scenes as more realistic if they contain appropriate anchor objects, while scene categorization relies on diagnostic objects.
{"title":"Anchor objects drive realism while diagnostic objects drive categorization in GAN generated scenes","authors":"Aylin Kallmayer, Melissa L.-H. Võ","doi":"10.1038/s44271-024-00119-z","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44271-024-00119-z","url":null,"abstract":"Our visual surroundings are highly complex. Despite this, we understand and navigate them effortlessly. This requires transforming incoming sensory information into representations that not only span low- to high-level visual features (e.g., edges, object parts, objects), but likely also reflect co-occurrence statistics of objects in real-world scenes. Here, so-called anchor objects are defined as being highly predictive of the location and identity of frequently co-occuring (usually smaller) objects, derived from object clustering statistics in real-world scenes, while so-called diagnostic objects are predictive of the larger semantic context (i.e., scene category). Across two studies (N1 = 50, N2 = 44), we investigate which of these properties underlie scene understanding across two dimensions – realism and categorisation – using scenes generated from Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) which naturally vary along these dimensions. We show that anchor objects and mainly high-level features extracted from a range of pre-trained deep neural networks (DNNs) drove realism both at first glance and after initial processing. Categorisation performance was mainly determined by diagnostic objects, regardless of realism, at first glance and after initial processing. Our results are testament to the visual system’s ability to pick up on reliable, category specific sources of information that are flexible towards disturbances across the visual feature-hierarchy. Human observers rate Generative Adversarial Network scenes as more realistic if they contain appropriate anchor objects, while scene categorization relies on diagnostic objects.","PeriodicalId":501698,"journal":{"name":"Communications Psychology","volume":" ","pages":"1-11"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s44271-024-00119-z.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141800578","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-07-20DOI: 10.1038/s44271-024-00118-0
Maria Wirth, Markus Wettstein, Klaus Rothermund
Time perspective is an important predictor of well-being. How time is represented, is itself subject to developmental change. A time perspective dominated by the future is increasingly replaced by one focused on the present and past as remaining lifetime decreases. These age-related changes supposedly are associated with higher subjective well-being. Previous studies yielded heterogeneous results. However, these studies mostly investigated one dimension of time perspective and did not include younger and/or middle-aged adults. Thus, we investigated how changes in four facets of time perspective (past-orientation, concreteness of future time, obsolescence, and attitudes towards finitude) were related to changes in life and domain-specific satisfaction and if these relations were moderated by age. We used 10-year longitudinal data from an age-diverse sample comprising 459 participants (30–80 years). Concreteness was most consistently related to satisfaction. Individuals with overall higher concreteness reported higher life satisfaction and higher life satisfaction was reported on measurement occasions with higher concreteness. An age moderation was only found for satisfaction with mental fitness. Among younger but not older adults, satisfaction with mental fitness was higher on measurement occasions with higher concreteness. Our study provides a deeper understanding of the relation between time perspective and well-being across adulthood. Across occasions and individuals, perceiving the future more concretely was associated with greater life satisfaction for adults aged 30 to 80 years. Age moderated this association in the domain of mental fitness with stronger associations for younger adults.
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