If Attitudes Affect How Stimuli Are Processed, Should They Not Affect the Event-Related Brain Potential?

1993 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 108-112 ◽  
Author(s):  
John T. Cacioppo ◽  
Stephen L. Crites ◽  
Gary G. Berntson ◽  
Michael G. H. Coles

In Experiment 1, subjects completed an attitude survey to identify items toward which they held positive and negative attitudes. Subsequently, subjects were instructed to count the number of positive (or negative) stimuli in a series. Each series contained six attitude stimuli from a given semantic category (e.g., fruits), and the structure of the series was varied so that positive and negative stimuli, as indexed by subjects' idiosyncratic attitudes, were evaluatively consistent or inconsistent within the series. In Experiment 2, subjects were exposed to personality traits that were positive or negative in series of six. Again, the structure of the series was varied so that positive and negative traits were evaluatively consistent or inconsistent within the series. Results of Experiments 1 and 2 indicated that although the event-related brain potential did not differ as a function of stimulus valence per se, evaluatively inconsistent, in contrast to consistent, stimuli evoked a larger amplitude late P300-like positive component that was maximal over the centroparietal region.

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (6) ◽  
pp. 650-655 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalie J. Shook ◽  
Russ Clay

A considerable amount of research indicates that political conservatives and liberals perceive their social worlds very differently, with conservatives perceiving the world more negatively than liberals. Two studies examined how these varying perceptions may develop by exploring the relation between political ideology and attitude formation. In both studies, participants completed an evaluative conditioning paradigm in which novel stimuli were paired with either positive or negative images. Political conservatives were more susceptible to conditioning with negative stimuli than conditioning with positive stimuli as compared to political liberals. Specifically, conservatives were less susceptible to conditioning with positive stimuli than liberals. Conditioning with negative stimuli did not differ by political ideology. These findings suggest fundamental differences in the formation of positive versus negative attitudes between conservatives and liberals.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-25
Author(s):  
Maryam Akbarilakeh ◽  
Fahimeh Fargah ◽  
Katatyoun Razjouyan ◽  
Mitra Rahimzadeh

Background: The ability of communicating with people is of great importance for physicians. Predicting unknown variables like personality traits is one of the important impressive issues in choosing future medical experts in medical training. Regarding this, medical colleges have training programs all around the world. The present study aimed to investigate the attitude toward learning communication skills based on the personality traits of medical students. Materials and Methods: This correlational study was done in 2019 and the participants were medical students who were selected using a convenience sampling method. Zuckerman-Kuhlman personality questionnaire and communication skills attitude scale (CSAS) were used for data collection. CSAS was used to assess positive and negative attitudes. Results: The results showed that only the sociability dimension among the five dimensions of personality had a significant relationship with attitude toward learning communication skills (P=0.018). Moreover, significant relationships of gender (P=0.022), mother’s education level (P=0.049), and residence (P=0.036) with attitude to learning communication skills were found. Conclusion: According to the results, the dimension of demographic characteristics is effective in improving communication skills of medical students. Therefore, it is recommended that it should be considered in medical curriculum development and revision and modifications.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sabine Windmann ◽  
Patrick Stier ◽  
Lisa Steinbrück

To investigate peoples' trait attribution biases, we asked participants to generate faces of "bad guys" and "good guys" using three methods: free drawings, photo-editing, and feature assembly. In referring to research linking facial width (relative to height, fWHR) with aggressive and dominant personality traits in males, we compared fWHR displayed in the generated portraits between the two character types . We found that participants modelled emotional expressions (in particular, expression of anger and fear/friendliness), but not fWHR per se, to portray character trait. When emotional expressions were statistically controlled for, no difference in fWHR between "bad guys" and "good guys" remained. We conclude that emotion overgeneralization is a strong confound in research on fWHR.


1982 ◽  
Vol 53 (5) ◽  
pp. 1207-1212 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. M. Baden ◽  
C. J. Dore ◽  
C. J. Green ◽  
S. Monk ◽  
M. J. Halsey ◽  
...  

Male mice were exposed to 50 ATA heliox pressure to study whether their functional fertility was affected. In series I, control mice were exposed to 1 ATA air; in series II controls were exposed to 5 ATA heliox, which enabled the PO2 and environmental temperature to be maintained at equivalent levels to the pressure group. After exposure during one spermatogenic cycle, the mice were mated with untreated females. There was a dramatic reduction in fertility in the pressure groups, with males in both series I and II showing a 65% reduction in fertility. Overall results were as follows: 19.5% pregnant females mated with the pressure groups compared with 55% pregnant in the control groups. Litter sizes in the pressure groups were reduced by 44%, but there was no evidence of any pressure-related teratological effect. This reduction in fertility appears to be due to high pressure per se and not to the high environmental temperature and PO2 associated with heliox atmospheres.


2021 ◽  
Vol 72 (1) ◽  
pp. 503-531
Author(s):  
Victoria M. Esses

Prejudice and discrimination toward immigrants, and the consequences of these negative attitudes and behavior, are key determinants of the economic, sociocultural, and civic-political future of receiving societies and of the individuals who seek to make these societies their new home. In this article I review and organize the existing literature on the determinants and nature of prejudice and discrimination toward immigrants, summarizing what we know to date and the challenges in attributing effects to immigrant status per se. I also discuss the consequences of discrimination against immigrants for immigrants themselves, their families, and the societies in which they settle. I conclude by presenting key research questions and topics in this domain that should be at the top of the research agenda for those interested in intergroup relations in this age of mass migration.


2001 ◽  
Vol 49 (11) ◽  
pp. 922-929 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald J Gurrera ◽  
Brian F O’Donnell ◽  
Paul G Nestor ◽  
Joanna Gainski ◽  
Robert W McCarley

Author(s):  
Н.А. Фомина ◽  
Е.В. Кротенко

В статье рассмотрена актуальная проблема формирования свойств личности подростков на примере агрессивности подростков-спортсменов. Обоснована актуальность изучения агрессивности в подростковом возрасте, особенно в современных условиях развития личности. Обращено внимание на факторы, способствующие развитию у подростков данного свойства, среди которых — занятия борцовскими видами спорта. Описаны результаты системного исследования выраженности содержательных и инструментально-динамических составляющих личностной агрессивности, различных форм проявления агрессивного и враждебного поведения у подростков-спортсменов, занимавшихся боксом (в сравнении с агрессивностью неспортсменов). Раскрыты связи между различными составляющими и формами агрессивности у спортсменов. Сформулирован вывод о том, что агрессивность не являлась устойчивым свойством личности подростков-спортсменов, проявляемым ими за пределами ринга в отношениях с окру­жающими, поскольку они лучше подростков-неспортсменов осознавали значение и последствия агрессивного поведения, имели более развитые коммуникативные умения, внутреннюю саморегуляцию и были способны брать на себя ответственность за агрессивные действия, а при проявлении их в критических ситуациях больше руководствовались общественными мотивами защитить права других людей, оградить их от неприятностей; реже проявляли физическую агрессию, силу, выражая негативные чувства к окружающим в словесной форме и нечасто используя сплетни, слухи, шутки про­тив них. Иными словами, в целом по отношению к другим людям они были менее агрессивны и враждебны. The article treats a highly relevant issue of personality traits formation in adolescents at the example of aggressiveness in adolescent athletes. The article maintains that the investigation of aggressiveness in adolescents is highly relevant, especially in the modern conditions of personality development. It highlights some factors that promote aggressiveness in adolescents, some of whom are wrestling athletes. The article describes the results of a systemic research of cognitive and instrumental-dynamic components of aggressiveness, of various forms of aggressive and hostile behavior in adolescent boxers (compared with non-athletic adolescents). It explains the connection between various components and forms of aggressiveness in athletes. The article concludes that aggressiveness is a not a unattainable characteristic of adolescent athletes, which can be manifested outside sporting events. Adolescent athletes realize the significance and the potential consequences of aggressive behavior better than their non-athletic peers. Adolescent athletes have better developed communication skills and are fully responsible for their aggressive behavior. In critical situations they are motivated by the necessity to protect other people and other people’s rights. They manifest aggression less frequently, verbally expressing their negative attitudes towards other people and their actions. They are less inclined to rely on gossip and rumor or to mock at others. In other words, aggressiveness and hostility are manifested in adolescent athletes less intently than in their non-athletic peers.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Motonori Yamaguchi ◽  
Jing Chen

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.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chiara Fini ◽  
Maja Fischer ◽  
Lara Bardi ◽  
Marcel Brass ◽  
Agnes Moors

Previous behavioral studies using stimulus-response compatibility tasks have shown that people are faster to carry out instructed approach/avoidance responses to positive/negative stimuli. This result has been taken as evidence that positive/negative stimulus valence directly activates a tendency to approach/avoid, which in turn, facilitates execution of instructed approach/avoidance behavior. In these studies, however, it cannot be excluded that the results reflect a purely semantic link between stimulus valence and instructed responses. According to this alternative interpretation, positive/negative stimuli do not elicit an approach/avoidance tendency, but instead they interact with the positive/negative valence of the instructed responses, and in this way, produce the observed compatibility effect. To circumvent this possible disadvantage of compatibility tasks, we used a novel method for the measurement of early action tendencies: TMS induced MEPs. In two experiments, participants were first trained to abduct the index finger to approach and the thumb to avoid. Then, they observed a series of positive and negative stimuli. Each stimulus was followed by a TMS pulse (at 400 ms post-stimulus onset) and MEPs were measured continuously on the muscles of both fingers. These observation trials were randomly intermixed with response trials, in which neutral stimuli were presented and participants were instructed to approach/avoid the stimuli. In Experiment 1, participants received clear visual feedback on the outcome of their response in the response trials. In Experiment 2, we omitted this feedback to test whether it was necessary for the effect to occur. The results indicated higher MEPs for the approach/avoidance finger after positive/negative stimuli in Experiment 1 but not in Experiment 2. Analyses on the data aggregated over both experiments suggest that the visual feedback was necessary for stimulus valence to elicit action tendencies. Taken together, the results are in line with the results of behavioral studies with compatibility tasks, suggesting that stimulus valence directly elicits specific action tendencies already at 400 ms but they indicate that clear visual feedback is necessary for this effect to occur.


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