Mental Number Representations are Spatially Mapped both by Their Magnitudes and Ordinal Positions

One of the most fundamental effects used to investigate number representations is the Spatial-Numerical Association of Response Codes (SNARC) effect showing that responses to small/large numbers are faster with the left/right hand, respectively. However, in recent years, it is hotly debated whether the SNARC effect is based upon cardinal representation of number magnitude or ordinal representation of number sequence in working memory. However, one problem is that evidence comes from different paradigms, e.g., evidence for ordinal sequences comes usually from experiments, where ordinal sequences have to be learnt and it has been ar-gued that this secondary task triggers the effect. Therefore, in this preregistered study we em-ployed a SNARC task, without secondary ordinal sequence learning, in which we can dissociate ordinal and magnitude accounts by careful manipulation of experimental stimulus sets and com-pare magnitude and ordinal models. The results indicate that even though the observed data is better accounted for by the magnitude model, the ordinal position seems to matter as well. Thus, it appears that the mechanisms described by both accounts play a significant role when mental numbers are temporarily mapped onto space even when no ordinal learning is involved.

The songs of my people: appraisal differences of popular music as a function of ideology

Music powerfully engages brain and mind, yet remains largely underutilized as experimental stimulus material. Here, we wondered how ideological differences manifest in terms of musical preferences. To explore this question, we studied a large sample of research participants by exposing them to a representative corpus of musical stimuli while also eliciting their ideological position. Doing so, we found that ideological differences are linked to specific signatures of musical appraisal - there are significant genre-based differences in self-reported listening behavior as well as appraisal differences in how people with different ideological affiliations experience the music when listening to it. This effect is strong: ideology can be used to predict whether an ambiguous stimulus in terms of valence - e.g. country music – is experienced as aversive or enjoyable. As political preferences affect aesthetic judgments, we conclude that ideological positions are more deeply rooted than suggested by a discourse model of political exchange.

Evade and Deceive? Citizen Responses to Surveillance

How does state surveillance influence citizens’ willingness to express political and social opinions? This article theorizes about different citizen responses to surveillance which fall on what we term the evasion-deception spectrum, including preference falsification, self-censorship, and opting-out. We present the results from an empirical exploration of these responses, drawing on an online survey experiment conducted in Japan. In our survey, we use a novel experimental stimulus to assess whether individuals engage in different forms of evasion and deception when plausibly under government surveillance. The study finds that citizens are substantially more likely to opt-out of sharing their opinions (by exiting a survey) when reminded of their government’s capacity for monitoring. This occurs even when it implies a monetary cost (forfeiting payment for the survey) and even in a fully consolidated democracy, where freedoms of speech and opinion are legally codified. We conclude by discussing the implications of this finding for democratic deliberation and citizen-state relations.

What Could Have Been or What Will Be: A Test of the Functional Theory of Counterfactual Thinking

The functional theory of counterfactual thinking (Epstude & Roese, 2008) proposes that considering how past events might have been different prepares us for how the future might be. Previous research provides ambiguous support: Counterfactual thoughts contain less controllable features than future thoughts (e.g. Ferrante, Girroto, Straga, & Walsh, 2013) and therefore cannot serve a preparatory function. In this study, we used a novel experimental stimulus to compare a narrow and diffuse time period counterfactual with future thinking. In prior experimental designs, when participants were expected to think counterfactually, the time period they were being asked to consider was ambiguous. Thus, the specificity of the targeted time period was confounded with temporal direction (counterfactual thinking versus future thinking). We removed this confound to see if previous results would replicate. They did replicate: Counterfactual thoughts contained less controllable features relative to future thoughts. Therefore, we concluded that the targeted time period being confounded with temporal direction did not contribute to results reported in previous literature. We also tested the controllability (controllable vs uncontrollable) and locus of causation (internal vs external) confound identified by Roese, Smallman, and Epstude (2017). We found no difference in the locus of causation of counterfactual and future thinking when considering all thoughts produced, but less internally-oriented features when thinking counterfactually relative to the future when considering only the first thought produced (as per Kahneman & Tversky, 1982).

Influences of Contact Force towards Dressing Contiguous Sense of Linen Clothing

In this paper, the experimental paradigm of cognitive behaviors to study the cognitive activities in the contiguous sense cognition of the tested linen clothing is introduced. The experimental program is written with E-Prime 2.0, while the expression of experimental stimulus material is realized with the developed dressing contiguous sense measurement device, which output the senses of urtication, roughness and smoothness among the fabric contiguous sense. Changing the relative force for the contact between fabric and human skin, the dressing contiguous sense is tested in different contiguous force conditions. The result shows that, with the increase of relative contiguous force, the evaluation value for the sense of urtication is increase, the value for the roughness sense is also increase, but that for the smoothness sense is decrease.

Pre-experimental stimulus familiarity modulates the effects of item repetition on source memory

Previous studies have reported contradictory findings regarding the effects of item repetition on the subsequent encoding of contextual details associated with items (i.e., source memory). Whereas some studies reported repetition-induced enhancement in source memory, other studies observed repetition-induced impairment. To resolve these conflicting results, we examined the modulatory role of pre-experimental stimulus familiarity in the relationship between item repetition and new source memory formation by orthogonally manipulating pre-experimental stimulus familiarity and intra-experimental item repetition. In a series of experiments consisting of three phases (item repetition, item-source association, and source memory test), we found that item repetition impaired source memory for pre-experimentally familiar items (famous faces or words), whereas the same manipulation improved source memory for pre-experimentally novel items (non-famous faces or pseudowords). Crucially, item repetition impaired, rather than improved, source memory for pre-experimentally novel items when these items had been pre-exposed to participants prior to the three-phase procedure. Collectively, these findings provide strong evidence that pre-experimental stimulus familiarity determines the relative costs and benefits of experimental item repetition on the encoding of new item-source associations. By demonstrating the interaction between different types of stimulus familiarity, the present findings advance our understanding of how prior experience affects the formation of new episodic memories. [Citation: Lee, H., Kim, K., & Yi, D-J. (in press). Pre-experimental stimulus familiarity modulates the effects of item repetition on source memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition.]

Wild jackdaws are wary of objects that violate expectations of animacy

Nature is composed of self-propelled, animate agents and inanimate objects. Laboratory studies have shown that human infants and a few species discriminate between animate and inanimate objects. This ability is assumed to have evolved to support social cognition and filial imprinting, but its ecological role for wild animals has never been examined. An alternative, functional explanation is that discriminating stimuli based on their potential for animacy helps animals distinguish between harmless and threatening stimuli. Using remote-controlled experimental stimulus presentations, we tested if wild jackdaws ( Corvus monedula ) respond fearfully to stimuli that violate expectations for movement. Breeding pairs ( N = 27) were presented at their nests with moving and non-moving models of ecologically relevant stimuli (birds, snakes and sticks) that differed in threat level and propensity for independent motion. Jackdaws were startled by movement regardless of stimulus type and produced more alarm calls when faced with animate objects. However, they delayed longest in entering their nest-box after encountering a stimulus that should not move independently, suggesting they recognized the movement as unexpected. How jackdaws develop expectations about object movement is not clear, but our results suggest that discriminating between animate and inanimate stimuli may trigger information gathering about potential threats.

The Effect of Entrepreneurship Education on Entrepreneurial Intention: An Experimental Study on Undergraduate Business Students

The main aim of this study is to reveal the effect of entrepreneurship education on entrepreneurial intentions of students. Participants of this study in which field experiment was carried out consisted of experimental group involving 207 participants who were exposed to experimental stimulus (entrepreneurship education) and control group involving 131 participants who had characteristics similar to experimental group but who were not exposed to experimental stimulus. Within this scope, this study was carried out by applying pre-test and post-test at the beginning and in the end of the term to measure entrepreneurial intentions of undergraduate students at the Department of Business, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Gazi University who enrolled in the university the same year, and who were divided into two groups as experimental (received entrepreneurship education within 15-week syllabus) and control (did not receive entrepreneurship education). Findings of the study show that there was a statistically significant difference between the entrepreneurial intentions of students before (beginning of term) and after (end of term) receiving entrepreneurship education. While no significant difference was found in two dimensions of entrepreneurial intention namely “innovation and action” and “family support”, there were significant differences in the dimensions of “determination and perseverance”, challenges of starting business” and “negative thoughts on running one’s own business”. Furthermore, it was found that scores of experimental group in these three dimensions after receiving entrepreneurship education were higher than their scores before the education. On the other hand, compared to experimental group, control group did not show any significant difference both in their general entrepreneurial intentions and in each dimension of entrepreneurial intention.