Psychological SciencePub Date : 2024-10-01Epub Date: 2024-08-19DOI: 10.1177/09567976241263002
Henry M Jones, Gisella K Diaz, William X Q Ngiam, Edward Awh
{"title":"Electroencephalogram Decoding Reveals Distinct Processes for Directing Spatial Attention and Encoding Into Working Memory.","authors":"Henry M Jones, Gisella K Diaz, William X Q Ngiam, Edward Awh","doi":"10.1177/09567976241263002","DOIUrl":"10.1177/09567976241263002","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Past work reveals a tight relationship between spatial attention and storage in visual working memory. But is spatially attending an item tantamount to working memory encoding? Here, we tracked electroencephalography (EEG) signatures of spatial attention and working memory encoding while independently manipulating the number of memory items and the spatial extent of attention in two studies of adults (<i>N</i> = 39; <i>N</i> = 33). Neural measures of spatial attention tracked the position and size of the attended area independent of the number of individuated items encoded into working memory. At the same time, multivariate decoding of the number of items stored in working memory was insensitive to variations in the breadth and position of spatial attention. Finally, representational similarity analyses provided converging evidence for a pure load signal that is insensitive to the spatial extent of the stored items. Thus, although spatial attention is a persistent partner of visual working memory, it is functionally dissociable from the selection and maintenance of individuated representations in working memory.</p>","PeriodicalId":20745,"journal":{"name":"Psychological Science","volume":" ","pages":"1108-1138"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2024-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142005049","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Psychological SciencePub Date : 2024-10-01Epub Date: 2024-08-20DOI: 10.1177/09567976241263347
Marlie C Tandoc, Bharat Nadendla, Theresa Pham, Amy S Finn
{"title":"Directing Attention Shapes Learning in Adults but Not Children.","authors":"Marlie C Tandoc, Bharat Nadendla, Theresa Pham, Amy S Finn","doi":"10.1177/09567976241263347","DOIUrl":"10.1177/09567976241263347","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Children sometimes learn distracting information better than adults do, perhaps because of the development of selective attention. To understand this potential link, we ask how the learning of children (aged 7-9 years) and the learning of adults differ when information is the directed focus of attention versus when it is not. Participants viewed drawings of common objects and were told to attend to the drawings (Experiment 1: 42 children, 35 adults) or indicate when shapes (overlaid on the drawings) repeated (Experiment 2: 53 children, 60 adults). Afterward, participants identified fragments of these drawings as quickly as possible. Adults learned better than children when directed to attend to the drawings; however, when drawings were task irrelevant, children showed better learning than adults in the first half of the test. And although directing attention to the drawings improved learning in adults, children learned the drawings similarly across experiments regardless of whether the drawings were the focus of the task or entirely irrelevant.</p>","PeriodicalId":20745,"journal":{"name":"Psychological Science","volume":" ","pages":"1139-1154"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2024-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142009352","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Marco Balducci, Marie-Pier Larose, Gijsbert Stoet, David C. Geary
{"title":"The Gender-Equality Paradox in Intraindividual Academic Strengths: A Cross-Temporal Analysis","authors":"Marco Balducci, Marie-Pier Larose, Gijsbert Stoet, David C. Geary","doi":"10.1177/09567976241271330","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976241271330","url":null,"abstract":"Independent of overall achievement, girls’ intraindividual academic strength is typically reading, whereas boys’ strength is typically mathematics or science. Sex differences in intraindividual strengths are associated with educational and occupational sex disparities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. Paradoxically, these sex differences are larger in more gender-equal countries, but the stability of this paradox is debated. We assessed the stability of the gender-equality paradox in intraindividual strengths, and its relation to wealth, by analyzing the academic achievement of nearly 2.5 million adolescents across 85 countries and regions in five waves (from 2006 to 2018) of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). Girls’ intraindividual strength in reading and boys’ strength in mathematics and science were stable across countries and waves. Boys’ advantage in science as an intraindividual strength was larger in more gender-equal countries, whereas girls’ advantage in reading was larger in wealthier countries. The results have implications for reducing sex disparities in STEM fields.","PeriodicalId":20745,"journal":{"name":"Psychological Science","volume":"85 1","pages":"9567976241271330"},"PeriodicalIF":8.2,"publicationDate":"2024-09-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142180963","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Psychological SciencePub Date : 2024-09-01Epub Date: 2024-09-02DOI: 10.1177/09567976241263344
Luzi Xu, Chris L E Paffen, Stefan Van der Stigchel, Surya Gayet
{"title":"Statistical Learning Facilitates Access to Awareness.","authors":"Luzi Xu, Chris L E Paffen, Stefan Van der Stigchel, Surya Gayet","doi":"10.1177/09567976241263344","DOIUrl":"10.1177/09567976241263344","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Statistical learning is a powerful mechanism that enables the rapid extraction of regularities from sensory inputs. Although numerous studies have established that statistical learning serves a wide range of cognitive functions, it remains unknown whether statistical learning impacts conscious access. To address this question, we applied multiple paradigms in a series of experiments (<i>N</i> = 153 adults): Two reaction-time-based breaking continuous flash suppression (b-CFS) experiments showed that probable objects break through suppression faster than improbable objects. A preregistered accuracy-based b-CFS experiment showed higher localization accuracy for suppressed probable (versus improbable) objects under identical presentation durations, thereby excluding the possibility of processing differences emerging after conscious access (e.g., criterion shifts). Consistent with these findings, a supplemental visual-masking experiment reaffirmed higher localization sensitivity to probable objects over improbable objects. Together, these findings demonstrate that statistical learning alters the competition for scarce conscious resources, thereby potentially contributing to established effects of statistical learning on higher-level cognitive processes that require consciousness.</p>","PeriodicalId":20745,"journal":{"name":"Psychological Science","volume":" ","pages":"1035-1047"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2024-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142111343","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Psychological SciencePub Date : 2024-09-01Epub Date: 2024-06-24DOI: 10.1177/09567976241246709
Hiroyuki Tsubomi, Keisuke Fukuda, Atsushi Kikumoto, Ulrich Mayr, Edward K Vogel
{"title":"Task Termination Triggers Spontaneous Removal of Information From Visual Working Memory.","authors":"Hiroyuki Tsubomi, Keisuke Fukuda, Atsushi Kikumoto, Ulrich Mayr, Edward K Vogel","doi":"10.1177/09567976241246709","DOIUrl":"10.1177/09567976241246709","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Working memory (WM) is a goal-directed memory system that actively maintains a limited amount of task-relevant information to serve the current goal. By this definition, WM maintenance should be terminated after the goal is accomplished, spontaneously removing no-longer-relevant information from WM. Past studies have failed to provide direct evidence of spontaneous removal of WM content by allowing participants to engage in a strategic reallocation of WM resources to competing information within WM. By contrast, we provide direct neural and behavioral evidence that visual WM content can be largely removed less than 1 s after it becomes obsolete, in the absence of a strategic allocation of resources (total <i>N</i> = 442 adults). These results demonstrate that visual WM is intrinsically a goal-directed system, and spontaneous removal provides a means for capacity-limited WM to keep up with ever-changing demands in a dynamic environment.</p>","PeriodicalId":20745,"journal":{"name":"Psychological Science","volume":" ","pages":"995-1009"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2024-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141446883","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Psychological SciencePub Date : 2024-09-01Epub Date: 2024-07-24DOI: 10.1177/09567976241251741
Kerem Oktar, Tania Lombrozo, Thomas L Griffiths
{"title":"Learning From Aggregated Opinion.","authors":"Kerem Oktar, Tania Lombrozo, Thomas L Griffiths","doi":"10.1177/09567976241251741","DOIUrl":"10.1177/09567976241251741","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The capacity to leverage information from others' opinions is a hallmark of human cognition. Consequently, past research has investigated how we learn from others' testimony. Yet a distinct form of social information-<i>aggregated opinion</i>-increasingly guides our judgments and decisions. We investigated how people learn from such information by conducting three experiments with participants recruited online within the United States (<i>N</i> = 886) comparing the predictions of three computational models: a Bayesian solution to this problem that can be implemented by a simple strategy for combining proportions with prior beliefs, and two alternatives from epistemology and economics. Across all studies, we found the strongest concordance between participants' judgments and the predictions of the Bayesian model, though some participants' judgments were better captured by alternative strategies. These findings lay the groundwork for future research and show that people draw systematic inferences from aggregated opinion, often in line with a Bayesian solution.</p>","PeriodicalId":20745,"journal":{"name":"Psychological Science","volume":" ","pages":"1010-1024"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2024-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141752500","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Psychological SciencePub Date : 2024-09-01Epub Date: 2024-08-14DOI: 10.1177/09567976241254037
Michal Herzenstein, Sanjana Rosario, Shin Oblander, Oded Netzer
{"title":"The Language of (Non)Replicable Social Science.","authors":"Michal Herzenstein, Sanjana Rosario, Shin Oblander, Oded Netzer","doi":"10.1177/09567976241254037","DOIUrl":"10.1177/09567976241254037","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Using publicly available data from 299 preregistered replications from the social sciences, we found that the language used to describe a study can predict its replicability above and beyond a large set of controls related to the article characteristics, study design and results, author information, and replication effort. To understand why, we analyzed the textual differences between replicable and nonreplicable studies. Our findings suggest that the language in replicable studies is transparent and confident, written in a detailed and complex manner, and generally exhibits markers of truthful communication, possibly demonstrating the researchers' confidence in the study. Nonreplicable studies, however, are vaguely written and have markers of persuasion techniques, such as the use of positivity and clout. Thus, our findings allude to the possibility that authors of nonreplicable studies are more likely to make an effort, through their writing, to persuade readers of their (possibly weaker) results.</p>","PeriodicalId":20745,"journal":{"name":"Psychological Science","volume":" ","pages":"1048-1061"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2024-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141983077","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Psychological SciencePub Date : 2024-09-01Epub Date: 2024-08-07DOI: 10.1177/09567976241260251
Charlotte H Townsend, Sonya Mishra, Laura J Kray
{"title":"Not All Powerful People Are Created Equal: An Examination of Gender and Pathways to Social Hierarchy Through the Lens of Social Cognition.","authors":"Charlotte H Townsend, Sonya Mishra, Laura J Kray","doi":"10.1177/09567976241260251","DOIUrl":"10.1177/09567976241260251","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Across four studies (<i>N</i> = 816 U.S. adults), we uncovered a gender stereotype about dual pathways to social hierarchy: Men were associated with power, and women were associated with status. We detected this pattern both explicitly and implicitly in perceptions of individuals drawn from <i>Forbes</i> magazine's powerful people lists in undergraduate and online samples. We examined social-cognitive implications, including prominent people's degree of recognition by individuals and society, and the formation of men's and women's self-concepts. We found that power (status) ratings predicted greater recognition of men (women) and lesser recognition of women (men). In terms of the self-concept, we found that women internalized the stereotype associating women with status more than power implicitly and explicitly. Although men explicitly reported having less status and more power than women, men implicitly associated the self with status as much as power. No gender differences emerged in the desires for power and status.</p>","PeriodicalId":20745,"journal":{"name":"Psychological Science","volume":" ","pages":"962-975"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2024-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141902715","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Psychological SciencePub Date : 2024-09-01Epub Date: 2024-08-07DOI: 10.1177/09567976241257255
Skyler Prowten, Emily Walker, Brian London, Elizabeth Pearce, Angela Napoli, Bailey Chenevert, Christian Clevenger, Andrew R Smith
{"title":"Does Physiological Arousal Increase Social Transmission of Information? Two Replications of Berger (2011).","authors":"Skyler Prowten, Emily Walker, Brian London, Elizabeth Pearce, Angela Napoli, Bailey Chenevert, Christian Clevenger, Andrew R Smith","doi":"10.1177/09567976241257255","DOIUrl":"10.1177/09567976241257255","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>People share information for many reasons. For example, Berger (2011, <i>N</i> = 40) found that undergraduate participants manipulated to have higher physiological arousal were more likely to share a news article with others via email than people who had low arousal. Berger's research is widely cited as evidence of the causal role of arousal in sharing information and has been used to explain why information that induces high-arousal emotions is shared more than information that induces low-arousal emotions. We conducted two replications (<i>N</i> = 111, <i>N</i> = 160) of Berger's study, using the same arousal manipulation but updating the sharing measure to reflect the rise of information sharing through social media. Both studies failed to find an impact of incidental physiological arousal on undergraduate participants' willingness to share news articles on social media. Our studies cast doubt on the idea that incidental physiological arousal-in the absence of other factors-impacts people's decisions to share information on social networking sites.</p>","PeriodicalId":20745,"journal":{"name":"Psychological Science","volume":" ","pages":"1025-1034"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2024-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141902714","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Psychological SciencePub Date : 2024-09-01Epub Date: 2024-08-09DOI: 10.1177/09567976241258149
Gordon Heltzel, Kristin Laurin
{"title":"Why Twitter Sometimes Rewards What Most People Disapprove of: The Case of Cross-Party Political Relations.","authors":"Gordon Heltzel, Kristin Laurin","doi":"10.1177/09567976241258149","DOIUrl":"10.1177/09567976241258149","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Recent evidence has shown that social-media platforms like Twitter (now X) reward politically divisive content, even though most people disapprove of interparty conflict and negativity. We document this discrepancy and provide the first evidence explaining it, using tweets by U.S. Senators and American adults' responses to them. Studies 1a and 1b examined 6,135 such tweets, finding that dismissing tweets received more Likes and Retweets than tweets that engaged constructively with opponents. In contrast, Studies 2a and 2b (<i>N</i> = 856; 1,968 observations) revealed that the broader public, if anything, prefers politicians' engaging tweets. Studies 3 (<i>N</i> = 323; 4,571 observations) and 4 (<i>N</i> = 261; 2,610 observations) supported two distinct explanations for this disconnect. First, users who frequently react to politicians' tweets are an influential yet unrepresentative minority, rewarding dismissing posts because, unlike most people, they prefer them. Second, the silent majority admit that they too would reward dismissing posts more, despite disapproving of them. These findings help explain why popular online content sometimes distorts true public opinion.</p>","PeriodicalId":20745,"journal":{"name":"Psychological Science","volume":" ","pages":"976-994"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2024-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141907577","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}