The Psychology, Geography, and Architecture of Horror: How Places Creep Us Out

Abstract Why do some types of settings and some combinations of sensory information induce a sense of dread in humans? This article brings empirical evidence from psychological research to bear on the experience of horror, and explains why the tried-and-true horror devices intuitively employed by writers and filmmakers work so well. Natural selection has favored individuals who gravitated toward environments containing the “right” physical and psychological features and avoided those which posed a threat. Places that contain a bad mix of these features induce unpleasant feelings of dread and fear, and therefore have become important ingredients of the settings for horror fiction and films. This article applies McAndrew and Koehnke's (2016) theory of creepiness to the study of classic horror settings and explores the role played by architecture, isolation, association with death, and other environmental qualities in the experience of creepiness and dread.

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Introduction to the special section on Increasing Replicability, Transparency, and Openness in Clinical Psychology

10.31234/osf.io/5zxbd ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Jennifer L Tackett ◽

Josh Miller

Keyword(s):

Empirical Evidence ◽

Data Sharing ◽

Clinical Psychology ◽

Special Section ◽

Psychological Research ◽

Open Science ◽

Clinical Psychologists ◽

Existing Problems

As psychological research comes under increasing fire for the crisis of replicability, attention has turned to methods and practices that facilitate (or hinder) a more replicable and veridical body of empirical evidence. These trends have focused on “open science” initiatives, including an emphasis on replication, transparency, and data sharing. Despite this broader movement in psychology, clinical psychologists and psychiatrists have been largely absent from the broader conversation on documenting the extent of existing problems as well as generating solutions to problematic methods and practices in our area (Tackett et al., 2017). The goal of the current special section was to bring together psychopathology researchers to explore these and related areas as they pertain to the types of research conducted in clinical psychology and allied disciplines.

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Propiedades psicométricas de la Escala de Autoritarismo de Derechas en población colombiana

10.31234/osf.io/txw7k ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Efrain Garcia-Sanchez ◽

Nelson Molina Valencia ◽

Estefanía Buitrago ◽

Zabdi Sanz ◽

Valentina Ramírez ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Psychometric Properties ◽

Empirical Evidence ◽

Social Dominance ◽

Three Dimensions ◽

Social Policies ◽

The Right

El autoritarismo es un constructo ampliamente estudiado en psicología para investigar comportamientos políticos. Para su medición se suele usar la escala de autoritarismo de derechas (RWA), la cual tiene variaciones en sus propiedades psicométricas según cada contexto. En este artículo traducimos y adaptamos una versión reducida del autoritarismo de derechas al contexto colombiano. En dos estudios (NEstudio1=417;NEstudio2=396), identificamos tres dimensiones: agresión-autoritaria, sumisión-autoritaria y convencionalismo; y encontramos que la RWA estuvo asociada positivamente con: dominancia social, deshumanización del adversario, apoyo al conflicto, patriotismo, sexismo, homofobia y la prohibición de políticas sociales consideradas como liberales (e.g., aborto, matrimonio igualitario, eutanasia). Se aporta evidencia empírica a favor de las propiedades psicométricas de la escala de RWA en el contexto colombiano. Authoritarianism is widely used construct to study political behaviors.For its measurement, researchers usually use the right authoritarianism scale (RWA), which has variations in its psychometric properties according to each context. In this article we translate and adapt a reduced version of RWA to the Colombian context. In two studies (NStudy1=417; NStudy2=396), we identified three dimensions: authoritarian-aggression, authoritarian-submission,and conventionalism. We also found that RWA was positively associated with: social dominance, dehumanization of the adversary, support for conflict, patriotism, sexism, homophobia and the prohibition of social policies considered liberal (e.g., abortion, equal marriage, euthanasia). Empirical evidence is provided in favor of the psychometric properties of the RWA scale in the Colombian context

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Skill and strategic control

Synthese ◽

10.1007/s11229-021-03053-3 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Ellen Fridland

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Empirical Evidence ◽

Mental Imagery ◽

Sports Psychology ◽

Mental Practice ◽

Strategic Control ◽

Cognitive Representations ◽

Personal Level ◽

The Right ◽

Better Than

AbstractThis paper provides an account of the strategic control involved in skilled action. When I discuss strategic control, I have in mind the practical goals, plans, and strategies that skilled agents use in order to specify, structure, and organize their skilled actions, which they have learned through practice. The idea is that skilled agents are better than novices not only at implementing the intentions that they have but also at forming the right intentions. More specifically, skilled agents are able formulate and modify, adjust and adapt their practical intentions in ways that are appropriate, effective, and flexible given their overall goals. Further, to specify the kind of action plans that are involved in strategic control, I’ll rely on empirical evidence concerning mental practice and mental imagery from sports psychology as well as evidence highlighting the systematic differences in the cognitive representations of skills between experts and non-experts. I’ll claim that, together, this evidence suggests that the intentions that structure skilled actions are practical and not theoretical, that is, that they are perceptual and motor and not abstract, amodal, or linguistic. Importantly, despite their grounded nature, these plans are still personal-level, deliberate, rational states. That is, the practical intentions used to specify and structure skilled actions are best conceived of as higher-order, motor-modal structures, which can be manipulated and used by the agent for the purpose of reasoning, deliberation, decision-making and, of course, the actual online structuring and organizing of action.

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Natural selection? Picking the right trees for urban greening

Environmental Science & Policy ◽

10.1016/j.envsci.2014.10.014 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 47 ◽

pp. 12-17 ◽

Cited By ~ 36

Author(s):

G. Churkina ◽

R. Grote ◽

T.M. Butler ◽

M. Lawrence

Keyword(s):

Natural Selection ◽

Urban Greening ◽

The Right

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Council House Sales and Residualization

Journal of Social Policy ◽

10.1017/s0047279400015166 ◽

1986 ◽

Vol 15 (3) ◽

pp. 273-292 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

N.J. Williams ◽

J. Sewel ◽

F. Twine

Keyword(s):

Public Sector ◽

Empirical Evidence ◽

Social Classes ◽

General Process ◽

The Public ◽

The Right ◽

The City ◽

Right To Buy ◽

Council House

ABSTRACTIt has been argued that council house sales will contribute towards a more general process of residualization of public sector housing. Empirical evidence is presented in this context derived from surveys of purchasers and non-purchasers of council dwellings in the city of Aberdeen. This evidence confirms that purchasers and non-purchasers exhibit different socio-economic characteristics and after only four years of the Right to Buy legislation significant numbers of households in social classes I, II and III have left the public sector via the mechanism of sales. The small number of sales relative to the stock as a whole, however, has meant that the overall contribution of sales towards residualization has been small. This evidence from Aberdeen is compared to evidence from elsewhere and related to the varying pattern of sales across the country as a whole.

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Neural Processing of Gravito-Inertial Cues in Humans. IV. Influence of Visual Rotational Cues During Roll Optokinetic Stimuli

Journal of Neurophysiology ◽

10.1152/jn.00513.2001 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 89 (1) ◽

pp. 390-400 ◽

Cited By ~ 40

Author(s):

L. H. Zupan ◽

D. M. Merfeld

Keyword(s):

Visual Cues ◽

Gravitational Force ◽

Sensory Information ◽

Inertial Force ◽

Linear Acceleration ◽

Otolith Organs ◽

Optokinetic Stimulation ◽

The Difference ◽

The Right ◽

Roll Tilt

Sensory systems often provide ambiguous information. For example, otolith organs measure gravito-inertial force (GIF), the sum of gravitational force and inertial force due to linear acceleration. However, according to Einstein's equivalence principle, a change in gravitational force due to tilt is indistinguishable from a change in inertial force due to translation. Therefore the central nervous system (CNS) must use other sensory cues to distinguish tilt from translation. For example, the CNS might use dynamic visual cues indicating rotation to help determine the orientation of gravity (tilt). This, in turn, might influence the neural processes that estimate linear acceleration, since the CNS might estimate gravity and linear acceleration such that the difference between these estimates matches the measured GIF. Depending on specific sensory information inflow, inaccurate estimates of gravity and linear acceleration can occur. Specifically, we predict that illusory tilt caused by roll optokinetic cues should lead to a horizontal vestibuloocular reflex compensatory for an interaural estimate of linear acceleration, even in the absence of actual linear acceleration. To investigate these predictions, we measured eye movements binocularly using infrared video methods in 17 subjects during and after optokinetic stimulation about the subject's nasooccipital (roll) axis (60°/s, clockwise or counterclockwise). The optokinetic stimulation was applied for 60 s followed by 30 s in darkness. We simultaneously measured subjective roll tilt using a somatosensory bar. Each subject was tested in three different orientations: upright, pitched forward 10°, and pitched backward 10°. Five subjects reported significant subjective roll tilt (>10°) in directions consistent with the direction of the optokinetic stimulation. In addition to torsional optokinetic nystagmus and afternystagmus, we measured a horizontal nystagmus to the right during and following clockwise (CW) stimulation and to the left during and following counterclockwise (CCW) stimulation. These measurements match predictions that subjective tilt in the absence of real tilt should induce a nonzero estimate of interaural linear acceleration and, therefore, a horizontal eye response. Furthermore, as predicted, the horizontal response in the dark was larger for Tilters ( n = 5) than for Non-Tilters ( n= 12).

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Inter- and intra-hemispheric spatiotemporal organization of spontaneous electrocortical oscillations

Journal of Neurophysiology ◽

10.1152/jn.1996.76.1.423 ◽

1996 ◽

Vol 76 (1) ◽

pp. 423-437 ◽

Cited By ~ 18

Author(s):

K. D. MacDonald ◽

B. Brett ◽

D. S. Barth

Keyword(s):

Time Series ◽

Somatosensory Cortex ◽

Phase Locking ◽

Sensory Information ◽

Gamma Oscillations ◽

Sensory Cortex ◽

Electrode Arrays ◽

Sharp Wave ◽

Lower Amplitude ◽

The Right

1. Two 64-channel epipial electrode arrays were positioned on homologous locations of the right and left hemisphere, covering most of primary and secondary auditory and somatosensory cortex in eight lightly anesthetized rats. Array placement was verified with the use of cytochrome oxidase histochemistry. 2. Middle-latency auditory and somatosensory evoked potentials (MAEPs and MSEPs, respectively) and spontaneous oscillations in the frequency range of 20-40 Hz (gamma oscillations) were recorded and found to be spatially constrained to regions of granular cortex, suggesting that both phenomena are closely associated with sensory information processing. 3. The MAEP and MSEP consisted of an initial biphasic sharp wave in primary auditory and somatosensory cortex, respectively, and a similar biphasic sharp wave occurred approximately 4-8 ms later in secondary sensory cortex of the given modality. Averaged gamma oscillations also revealed asynchronous activation of sensory cortex, but with a shorter 2-ms delay between oscillations in primary and secondary regions. Although the long latency shift of the MAEP and MSEP may be due in part to asynchronous activation of parallel thalamocortical projections to primary and secondary sensory cortex, the much shorter shift of gamma oscillations in a given modality is consistent with intracortical coupling of these regions. 4. Gamma oscillations occurred independently in auditory and somatosensory cortex within a given hemisphere. Furthermore, time series averaging revealed that there was no phase-locking of oscillations between the sensory modalities. 5. Gamma oscillations were loosely coupled between hemispheres; oscillations occurring in auditory or somatosensory cortex of one hemisphere were often associated with lower-amplitude oscillations in homologous contralateral sensory cortex. Yet, the fact that time series averaging revealed no interhemispheric phase-locking suggests that the corpus callosum may not coordinate the bilateral gamma oscillations, and that a thalamic modulatory influence may be involved.

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Predators as Agents of Selection and Diversification

Diversity ◽

10.3390/d12110415 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (11) ◽

pp. 415

Author(s):

Jerald B. Johnson ◽

Mark C. Belk

Keyword(s):

Natural Selection ◽

Empirical Evidence ◽

Mortality Rates ◽

Predator Species ◽

Natural Systems ◽

Evolutionary Diversification ◽

Multiple Predator Species ◽

In The Wild ◽

Taxonomic Groups ◽

Future Work

Predation is ubiquitous in nature and can be an important component of both ecological and evolutionary interactions. One of the most striking features of predators is how often they cause evolutionary diversification in natural systems. Here, we review several ways that this can occur, exploring empirical evidence and suggesting promising areas for future work. We also introduce several papers recently accepted in Diversity that demonstrate just how important and varied predation can be as an agent of natural selection. We conclude that there is still much to be done in this field, especially in areas where multiple predator species prey upon common prey, in certain taxonomic groups where we still know very little, and in an overall effort to actually quantify mortality rates and the strength of natural selection in the wild.

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Individual Laterality in Ghost Crabs (Ocypode saratan) Influences Burrowing Behavior

Symmetry ◽

10.3390/sym13081512 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (8) ◽

pp. 1512

Author(s):

Reuven Yosef ◽

Michal Daraby ◽

Alexei Semionovikh ◽

Jakub Z. Kosicki

Keyword(s):

Natural Selection ◽

Red Sea ◽

Selection Pressure ◽

Left Handed ◽

Self Defense ◽

Temporal Segregation ◽

Ghost Crabs ◽

Left And Right ◽

Burrowing Behavior ◽

The Right

Behavioral handedness is known to enhance an individual’s handling capabilities. However, the ecological advantages in brachyuran crustaceans remain unclear, despite the Ocypode species having been studied extensively. Thus, in this study, we analyzed the laterality of the endemic Red Sea ghost crab on one beach in Eilat, Israel. We successfully documented the laterality of the large cheliped in 125 crabs; in 60 (48.0%), the right cheliped was larger, and in 64 (51.2%), the left. We also observed temporal segregation between the right- and left-clawed crabs. The right-handed crabs start activity just after sunrise, while left-handed crabs appear ca. 40 min after it. Similarly, temporal segregations were also observed in the evening. The right-clawed crab activity peaked ca. 20 min before sunset, while the left-clawed crabs were active uniformly. Additionally, burrow entrances corresponded to the larger cheliped of the resident individual and is probably a self-defense-related behavior. We conclude that cheliped laterality in O. saratan populations should be considered as a bimodal trait, where left- and right-handedness is not under natural selection pressure.

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Psychological features and problems of support of civil cases connected with protection of the rights and interests of children

Applied psychology and pedagogy ◽

10.12737/2500-0543-2020-157-167 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 5 (3) ◽

pp. 167-177

Author(s):

Anasyasia Semakova ◽

Elena Arbusova ◽

Ekaterina Il'yankova

Keyword(s):

Comprehensive Assessment ◽

Psychological Study ◽

Significant Correction ◽

Psychological Examination ◽

Analytical Review ◽

Rights And Interests ◽

Civil Cases ◽

The Right ◽

Psychological Features

the article presents data from an analytical review of civil cases related to the protection of the rights and interests of minors in disputes over the right to raise children. The main purpose of the study is to justify the need for a significant correction of the procedure for participation in them by a specialist psychologist. The article shows that a large number of conclusions of psychologists have procedural, methodological and ethical errors. The expert's conclusion, which is accepted in the case as evidence, is not evaluated for completeness, validity and correctness of conclusions. However, the presence of a conclusion of a specialist psychologist in some cases is seen by the judge as a reason for refusing to appoint a forensic psychological examination, in cases where it is clearly necessary. At the same time, in order to ensure a comprehensive assessment of the psychological components of legally significant circumstances that need to be established and proven in disputes over the right to raise children, it is important to apply a more formally defined forensic psychological study. In our opinion, if the parties submit to the court a specialist's opinion based on the conclusions of a pre-trial psychological study, it is necessary to subject it to mandatory review by specialists of state and non-state expert institutions.

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