A psychological perspective towards understanding the objective and subjective gray zones in predatory publishing

A continued lack of clarity persists because academics, policymakers, and other interested parties are unable to clearly define what is a “predatory” journal or publisher, and a potentially wide gray zone exists there. In this perspective, we argue that journals should be evaluated on a continuum, and not just in two shades, black and white. Since evaluations about what might constitute “predatory” are made by humans, the psychological decision-making system that determines them may induce biases. Considering such human psychological characteristics might shed light on the deterministic criteria that have been used, and continue to be used, to classify a journal or publisher as “predatory”, and perhaps, bring additional clarity to this discussion. Better methods of journal evaluation can be obtained when the factors that polarize journal evaluations are identified. As one example, we need to move away from simply using whitelists and blacklists and educate individual researchers about how to evaluate journals. This paper serves as an educational tool by providing more clarity about the “gray” publishing zone, and argues that currently available qualitative and quantitative systems should be fused to deterministically appreciate the zonation of white, gray and black journals, so as to possibly reduce or eliminate the influence of cognitive or “perception” bias from the “predatory” publishing debate.

EXPRESS: Emotion perception bias associated with the hijab in Austrian and Turkish participants

In a cross-cultural study, we investigated the link between explicit attitudes towards the hijab, and implicit measures of cultural and religious bias during the recognition of emotions. Participants tested in Austria (N = 71), and in Turkey (N = 70) reported their attitude towards the hijab, and categorised in a mousetracker task happy and sad faces of women, shown with five levels of intensity, and framed either by a hijab or by an oval-shaped mask. The two samples did not differ in their explicit attitudes towards the hijab. However, negative attitude towards the hijab predicted greater sadness attribution to happy faces with the hijab in Austrian participants. Unrelated to their explicit attitudes, Turkish participants attributed more sadness to happy faces with than without the hijab. Results suggest that the sight of the hijab activated, in both Austrian and Turkish participants, implicit biases resulting in associations with sadness and negative emotions.

Fear-specific leftward bias in gaze direction judgment

Previous studies have shown that humans have a left spatial attention bias in cognition and behaviour. However, whether there exists a leftward perception bias of gaze direction has not been investigated. To address this gap, we conducted three behavioural experiments using a forced-choice gaze direction judgment task. The point of subjective equality (PSE) was employed to measure whether there was a leftward perception bias of gaze direction, and if there was, whether this bias was modulated by face emotion. The results of experiment 1 showed that the PSE of fearful faces was significantly positive as compared to zero and this effect was not found in angry, happy, and neutral faces, indicating that participants were more likely to judge the gaze direction of fearful faces as directed to their left-side space, namely a leftward perception bias. With the response keys counterbalanced between participants, experiment 2a replicated the findings in experiment 1. To further investigate whether the gaze direction perception variation was contributed by emotional or low-level features of faces, experiment 2b and 3 used inverted faces and inverted eyes, respectively. The results revealed similar leftward perception biases of gaze direction in all types of faces, indicating that gaze direction perception was biased by emotional information in faces rather than low-level facial features. Overall, our study demonstrates that there a fear-specific leftward perception bias in processing gaze direction. These findings shed new light on the cerebral lateralization in humans.

Size Perception Bias and Reach-to-Grasp Kinematics: An Exploratory Study on the Virtual Hand With a Consumer Immersive Virtual-Reality Device

While studies have increasingly used virtual hands and objects in virtual environments to investigate various processes of psychological phenomena, conflicting findings have been reported even at the most basic level of perception and action. To reconcile this situation, the present study aimed 1) to assess biases in size perception of a virtual hand using a strict psychophysical method and 2) to provide firm and conclusive evidence of the kinematic characteristics of reach-to-grasp movements with various virtual effectors (whole hand or fingertips only, with or without tactile feedback of a target object). Experiments were conducted using a consumer immersive virtual reality device. In a size judgment task, participants judged whether a presented virtual hand or an everyday object was larger than the remembered size. The results showed the same amplitude of underestimation (approximately 5%) for the virtual hand and the object, and no influence of object location, visuo-proprioceptive congruency, or short-term experience of controlling the virtual hand. Furthermore, there was a moderate positive correlation between actual hand size and perception bias. Analyses of reach-to-grasp movements revealed longer movement times and larger maximum grip aperture (MGA) for a virtual, as opposed to a physical, environment, but the MGA did not change when grasping was performed without tactile feedback. The MGA appeared earlier in the time course of grasping movements in all virtual reality conditions, regardless of the type of virtual effector. These findings confirm and corroborate previous evidence and may contribute to the field of virtual hand interfaces for interactions with virtual worlds.

Running Fast and Standing Slow: a Study on the Effect of Gesture Posing on Time Perception

Everyone has 24 hours in a day, but this does not feel the same for everyone. Time perception can be subjective and is affected by a wide range of factors. Studies have shown that presenting pictures with actions can bias observers’ performance in a duration reproduction task. Instead of watching pictures of actions, this research explored the effect of gesture posing on such a time perception bias. Sixty participants were assigned into either a watching or posing group. Compared with the corresponding baseline performance, participants overestimated time duration when viewing or posing pictures suggesting action. A corresponding underestimation was observed when the pictures or gestures suggested inaction. The role of physical gestures and their potential effect on time perception based on the embodiment account is discussed. Further investigation is also proposed to examine the role of the embodiment effect on subsecond time intervals.

Possible Perception Bias in the Thermal Evaluation of Evaporation Cooling with a Misting Fan

Mist evaporation cooling (MEC) is increasingly used as a low-energy means to improve thermal comfort in hot environments. However, the thermal sensation votes (TSV) often overshoot values of Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) models. Evaluations of MEC may be affected by an expectation that mist feels cool or the “good subject” effect. Here, subjects are exposed to a misting fan and an identical fan without mist and asked which fan feels cooler. Unknown to the subjects, the misting fan has almost no cooling effect (about 0.4 K reduction in air temperature) and a hidden heater increased the temperature of the misting fan air flow, making it up to 1.6 K warmer than the fan without mist. Supplemental experiments told the subjects about the heater. Surveys of over 300 subjects when varying this misted air temperature showed a bias above random chance that people vote that a misting fan airflow was cooler, even when it was the same temperature or slightly warmer than the non-misting fan. It is possible that the expectation of cooling or good subject effect influences evaluations of mist. This effect should be considered in thermal comfort evaluations of mist cooling and in the deployment of MEC systems.