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Psychonomic Bulletin & Review Dec 2023Conspiracy theories can be encountered repeatedly, which raises the issue of the effect of their repeated exposure on beliefs. Earlier studies found that repetition...
Conspiracy theories can be encountered repeatedly, which raises the issue of the effect of their repeated exposure on beliefs. Earlier studies found that repetition increases truth judgments of factual statements, whether they are uncertain, highly implausible, or fake news, for instance. Would this "truth effect" be observed with conspiracy statements? If so, is the effect size smaller than the typical truth effect, and is it associated with individual differences such as cognitive style and conspiracy mentality? In the present preregistered study, we addressed these three issues. We asked participants to provide binary truth judgments to conspiracy and factual statements already displayed in an exposure phase (an interest judgment task) or that were new (displayed only in the truth judgment task). We measured participants' cognitive style with the three-item Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT), and conspiracy mentality with the Conspiracy Mentality Questionnaire (CMQ). Importantly, we found that repetition increased truth judgments of conspiracy theories, unmoderated by cognitive style and conspiracy mentality. Additionally, we found that the truth effect was smaller with conspiracy theories than with uncertain factual statements, and suggest explanations for this difference. The results suggest that repetition may be a simple way to increase belief in conspiracy theories. Whether repetition increases conspiracy beliefs in natural settings and how it contributes to conspiracism compared to other factors are important questions for future research.
Topics: Humans; Judgment; Thinking; Uncertainty; Personality; Individuality
PubMed: 37219761
DOI: 10.3758/s13423-023-02276-4 -
Neuron Jan 2008Although much traditional sensory research has studied each sensory modality in isolation, there has been a recent explosion of interest in causal interplay between... (Review)
Review
Although much traditional sensory research has studied each sensory modality in isolation, there has been a recent explosion of interest in causal interplay between different senses. Various techniques have now identified numerous multisensory convergence zones in the brain. Some convergence may arise surprisingly close to low-level sensory-specific cortex, and some direct connections may exist even between primary sensory cortices. A variety of multisensory phenomena have now been reported in which sensory-specific brain responses and perceptual judgments concerning one sense can be affected by relations with other senses. We survey recent progress in this multisensory field, foregrounding human studies against the background of invasive animal work and highlighting possible underlying mechanisms. These include rapid feedforward integration, possible thalamic influences, and/or feedback from multisensory regions to sensory-specific brain areas. Multisensory interplay is more prevalent than classic modular approaches assumed, and new methods are now available to determine the underlying circuits.
Topics: Brain; Brain Mapping; Humans; Judgment; Models, Neurological; Neural Pathways; Perception
PubMed: 18184561
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2007.12.013 -
Cognitive Science Jan 2021People more frequently select norm-violating factors, relative to norm-conforming ones, as the cause of some outcome. Until recently, this abnormal-selection effect has...
People more frequently select norm-violating factors, relative to norm-conforming ones, as the cause of some outcome. Until recently, this abnormal-selection effect has been studied using retrospective vignette-based paradigms. We use a novel set of video stimuli to investigate this effect for prospective causal judgments-that is, judgments about the cause of some future outcome. Four experiments show that people more frequently select norm-violating factors, relative to norm-conforming ones, as the cause of some future outcome. We show that the abnormal-selection effects are not primarily explained by the perception of agency (Experiment 4). We discuss these results in relation to recent efforts to model causal judgment.
Topics: Causality; Humans; Judgment; Prospective Studies
PubMed: 33415814
DOI: 10.1111/cogs.12931 -
Scientific Reports Mar 2024Neurotypical (NT) individuals and individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) make different judgments of social traits from others' faces; they also exhibit...
Neurotypical (NT) individuals and individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) make different judgments of social traits from others' faces; they also exhibit different social emotional responses in social interactions. A common hypothesis is that the differences in face perception in ASD compared with NT is related to distinct social behaviors. To test this hypothesis, we combined a face trait judgment task with a novel interpersonal transgression task that induces measures social emotions and behaviors. ASD and neurotypical participants viewed a large set of naturalistic facial stimuli while judging them on a comprehensive set of social traits (e.g., warm, charismatic, critical). They also completed an interpersonal transgression task where their responsibility in causing an unpleasant outcome to a social partner was manipulated. The purpose of the latter task was to measure participants' emotional (e.g., guilt) and behavioral (e.g., compensation) responses to interpersonal transgression. We found that, compared with neurotypical participants, ASD participants' self-reported guilt and compensation tendency was less sensitive to our responsibility manipulation. Importantly, ASD participants and neurotypical participants showed distinct associations between self-reported guilt and judgments of criticalness from others' faces. These findings reveal a novel link between perception of social traits and social emotional responses in ASD.
Topics: Humans; Autistic Disorder; Autism Spectrum Disorder; Judgment; Emotions; Guilt
PubMed: 38443486
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-56005-5 -
Neuropsychologia Sep 2023We studied the role of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) in supporting the self-schema, by asking vmPFC patients, along with healthy and brain-damaged controls,...
We studied the role of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) in supporting the self-schema, by asking vmPFC patients, along with healthy and brain-damaged controls, to judge the degree to which they (or another person) were likely to engage in a series of activities, and how confident they were in their responses. Critically, participants provided their judgments on two separate occasions, a week apart. Our underlying assumption was that a strong self-schema would lead to confident and stable self-related judgments. We observed that control groups exhibited higher across-session consistency for self-related compared to other-related judgments, while this self-advantage was absent in vmPFC patients. In addition, regression analyses showed that in control groups the level of confidence associated with a specific (self- or other-related) judgment predicted the stability of that judgment across sessions. In contrast, vmPFC patients' confidence and rating consistency were aligned only for other-related judgments. By contrast, self-related judgments changed across sessions regardless of the confidence level with which they were initially endorsed. These findings indicate that the vmPFC is crucial to maintaining the self-schema and supporting the reliable retrieval of self-related information.
Topics: Humans; Prefrontal Cortex; Judgment; Magnetic Resonance Imaging
PubMed: 37481034
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2023.108651 -
Scientific Reports Apr 2019In daily life we often interact with moving objects in tasks that involve analyzing visual motion, like catching a ball. To do so successfully we track objects with our...
In daily life we often interact with moving objects in tasks that involve analyzing visual motion, like catching a ball. To do so successfully we track objects with our gaze, using a combination of smooth pursuit and saccades. Previous work has shown that the occurrence and direction of corrective saccades leads to changes in the perceived velocity of moving objects. Here we investigate whether such changes lead to equivalent biases in interception. Participants had to track moving targets with their gaze, and in separate sessions either judge the targets' velocities or intercept them by tapping on them. We separated trials in which target movements were tracked with pure pursuit from trials in which identical target movements were tracked with a combination of pursuit and corrective saccades. Our results show that interception errors are shifted in accordance with the observed influence of corrective saccades on velocity judgments. Furthermore, while the time at which corrective saccades occurred did not affect velocity judgments, it did influence their effect in the interception task. Corrective saccades around 100 ms before the tap had a stronger effect on the endpoint error than earlier saccades. This might explain why participants made earlier corrective saccades in the interception task.
Topics: Adult; Female; Fixation, Ocular; Humans; Judgment; Male; Middle Aged; Motion; Motion Perception; Photic Stimulation; Psychomotor Performance; Pursuit, Smooth; Saccades; Time Factors
PubMed: 30931972
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-41857-z -
PloS One 2023The general knowledge questions introduced by Nelson and Narens (Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 19(3), 338-368, 1980) have been a valuable research tool...
The general knowledge questions introduced by Nelson and Narens (Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 19(3), 338-368, 1980) have been a valuable research tool in various areas of cognitive research. We translated, updated, and expanded the set of questions for German. We present a total set of 356 general knowledge questions with their recall probability as well as metacognitive measures-confidence and peer judgments-based on a university student sample (N = 512). Furthermore, we present response latencies, pairwise correlations between recall probability and metacognitive judgments as well as the most common commission errors. These general knowledge questions can be used in studies with German speaking participants in a broad range of research fields, such as memory, illusory truth, misinformation, and metacognitive processes.
Topics: Humans; Judgment; Mental Recall; Metacognition; Verbal Learning; Reaction Time
PubMed: 36749739
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0281305 -
Journal of Vision May 2023Peripherally presented objects are often more difficult to identify when located in cluttered visual environments than when presented in isolation, a phenomenon known as...
Peripherally presented objects are often more difficult to identify when located in cluttered visual environments than when presented in isolation, a phenomenon known as visual crowding. Crowding tends to be stronger when target and nearby flanking elements are composed of similar sets of features. This study investigates the extent to which target-flanker orientation and/or color similarity determines luminance and orientation performance across different tasks under identical stimulus conditions. Targets were near-vertical Gabor patches defined by modulating only the green component of the RGB display. Subjects performed both target luminance and orientation discrimination tasks in separate blocks while both flanker hue (green or red flankers) and orientation (vertical or horizontal flankers) were manipulated as a function of target-flanker separation. We find strong evidence for a double dissociation between task and the specific set of features by which target-flanker similarity is defined. Whereas luminance judgments were highly contingent upon target-flanker hue similarity, orientation judgments showed the inverse pattern, largely contingent upon flanker orientation. The magnitude of this double dissociation decreased with target-flanker separation, at a rate predicted by Bouma's law. This specific pattern of performance provides strong support for the idea that crowding operates independently for the most part within orientation and color domains. That luminance judgments are constrained by target-flanker flanker hue similarity and, to a far lesser extent, by target-flanker orientation similarity suggests that the neural mechanisms responsible for mediating perceived luminance are principally linked to those mediating stimulus hue independent of those mediating stimulus orientation.
Topics: Humans; Judgment; Visual Perception
PubMed: 37159207
DOI: 10.1167/jov.23.5.7 -
Scientific Reports Jan 2023People judge the nature of human behaviors based on underlying intentions and possible outcomes. Recent studies have demonstrated a causal role of the right... (Randomized Controlled Trial)
Randomized Controlled Trial
People judge the nature of human behaviors based on underlying intentions and possible outcomes. Recent studies have demonstrated a causal role of the right temporoparietal junction (rTPJ) in modulating both intention and intention-based outcome evaluations during social judgments. However, these studies mainly used hypothetical scenarios with socially undesirable contexts (bad/neutral intentions and bad/neutral outcomes), leaving the role of rTPJ in judging good intentions and good outcomes unclear. In the current study, participants were instructed to make goodness judgments as a third party toward the monetary allocations from one proposer to another responder. Critically, in some cases, the initial allocation by the proposer could be reversed by the computer, yielding combinations of good/bad intentions (of the proposer) with good/bad outcomes (for the responder). Anodal (n = 20), cathodal (n = 21), and sham (n = 21) transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the rTPJ were randomly assigned to 62 subjects to further examine the effects of stimulation over the rTPJ in modulating intention-based outcome evaluation. Compared to the anodal and sham stimulations, cathodal tDCS over the rTPJ reduced the goodness ratings of good/bad outcomes when the intentions were good, whereas it showed no significant effect on outcome ratings under unknown and bad intentions. Our results provide the first evidence that deactivating the rTPJ modulates outcome evaluation in an intention-dependent fashion, mainly by reducing the goodness rating towards both good/bad outcomes when the intentions are good. Our findings argue for a causal role of the rTPJ in modulating intention-based social judgments and point to nuanced effects of rTPJ modulation.
Topics: Humans; Parietal Lobe; Temporal Lobe; Intention; Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation; Judgment
PubMed: 36690645
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-28293-w -
PloS One 2020Self-agency, the sense that one is the author or owner of one's behaviors, is impaired in multiple psychological and neurological disorders, including functional... (Clinical Trial)
Clinical Trial
Self-agency, the sense that one is the author or owner of one's behaviors, is impaired in multiple psychological and neurological disorders, including functional movement disorders, Parkinson's Disease, alien hand syndrome, schizophrenia, and dystonia. Existing assessments of self-agency, many of which focus on agency of movement, can be prohibitively time-consuming and often yield ambiguous results. Here, we introduce a short online motion tracking task that quantifies movement agency through both first-order perceptual and second-order metacognitive judgments. The task assesses the degree to which a participant can distinguish between a motion stimulus whose trajectory is influenced by the participant's cursor movements and a motion stimulus whose trajectory is random. We demonstrate the task's reliability in healthy participants and discuss how its efficiency, reliability, and ease of online implementation make it a promising new tool for both diagnosing and understanding disorders of agency.
Topics: Adult; Hand; Humans; Judgment; Male; Metacognition; Movement; Psychomotor Performance
PubMed: 33347502
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0244113