S1 (FriAM 1-65) - The Psychonomic Society

Papers 43–48 Friday Morning
NASA Ames Research Center, & ROGER W. REMINGTON, University
of Queensland (read by Roger W. Remington)—An external stimulus
can sometimes cause an involuntary shift of attention (attentional
capture) or eye fixation (oculomotor capture). Oculomotor capture
has been assumed to arise from attentional capture, and has been used
to demonstrate the ability of stimuli to capture attention involuntarily.
However, the presumed causal link between attention and oculomotor
capture is weakened by evidence that certain stimuli effective
in capturing attention are not effective in capturing the eyes. We (Wu
& Remington, 2003) have also shown oculomotor capture by transient
stimuli that do not produce attentional capture when subjects maintain
fixation. Here, we argue that a wide range of results on capture
can be understood in terms of two interacting brain systems, one associated
with the bottom-up orienting of the eyes, the other with topdown-mediated
orienting of attention. We review the empirical evidence
for distinguishing these systems, and how this distinction can
reconcile theoretical disputes.
Judgments and Reasoning
Beacon A, Friday Morning, 10:20–12:00
Chaired by Teresa A. Treat, Yale University
10:20–10:35 (43)
A Role for Correlation-Detection Processes in Acquaintance-
Initiated Sexual Aggression? TERESA A. TREAT, Yale University,
& RICHARD J. VIKEN & RICHARD M. MCFALL, Indiana University—We
evaluate whether men at risk of exhibiting sexual aggression
toward acquaintances make more biased and error-ridden judgments
about the covariation between women’s sexual interest (SI) and the
provocativeness of their dress (POD). Five hundred ninety undergraduate
males completed a Correlation-Detection Task with photo
stimuli that depicted normatively attractive undergraduate females
who varied both in SI and POD. Participants viewed 16 rapidly presented
photos on each trial and rated the covariation between the two
dimensions; true correlations between the dimensions varied from
�1.0 to �1.0 across 9 trials. Participants then completed sexualaggression
measures. Multilevel signal-detection analyses revealed
that (1) both high- and low-risk participants perceived an illusory correlation
in the stereotypically consistent direction; and (2) high-risk
men showed significantly lower sensitivity to the manipulated correlation
than low-risk men. These findings suggest that sexual aggression
may be maintained in part by erroneous evaluations of the covariation
of women’s affect and dress.
10:40–10:55 (44)
The Impact of Partner Knowledge on Judgment Accuracy.
MATTHEW E. JACOVINA & RICHARD J. GERRIG, Stony Brook
University (read by Richard J. Gerrig)—People often face circumstances
in which they must make choices for other individuals (e.g.,
when buying a gift or recommending a movie). We tested the hypothesis
that such judgments may become more difficult when people acquire
excessive information about the individual for whom they are
making the choice. In our research, participants obtained the answers
to 4 or 12 questions about another individual (e.g., What is your favorite
game?). They subsequently viewed displays of four objects
(e.g., four types of fruit) and attempted to select the one object they
thought the other individual was most likely to choose. Participants
who acquired more information were less likely to match the other individual.
In particular, participants with relatively more knowledge
were likely to change their judgments from popular choices (as determined
by a norming study) to less popular choices. These results
suggest that partner knowledge may prompt people to overthink some
judgments.
11:00–11:15 (45)
Category Overlap and Numerical Estimation: Evidence for a
Retrieval-Insensitive Distribution Matching Process. NORMAN R.
7
BROWN & ROBERT B. LATIMER, University of Alberta—The present
study was designed to determine how categorical range overlap affects
numerical estimation. Participants studied lists composed of 25
mammal and 25 city names and then estimated the list position of each
item. List position was determined largely by category membership,
with most items from one category occupying the first 25 list positions
and most items from the other category occupying the final 25
positions. Blend, the degree to which items from one category were
mixed among items from the other, was manipulated between
subjects. As predicted, category-inconsistent items (items in the minority
when presented) often elicited category-consistent responses;
in-migration increased with blend and decreased with other factors
known to improve item memory. Surprisingly, category-consistent
items sometimes elicited category-inconstant responses; outmigration
increased linearly with blend, but was unaffected by itemmemory
factors. Thus, distribution-matching and item knowledge
play a role in this task, although distributional beliefs are unaffected
by item-knowledge availability.
11:20–11:35 (46)
Editing Outliers and Distorting Data: The Role of Variability in
Human Contingency Judgments. JASON M. TANGEN, University
of Queensland—Detecting and evaluating relations among events is
a fundamental component of cognition and is entirely pervasive, arising
in everyday activities as well as complex decision making. In assessing
relationships, people with different prior theories do not regard
evidence in the same way, and over- or underweight particular
instances to fit their assumptions. A substantial body of work in social
cognition has examined our tendency to distort observed relations
in the direction of our prior assumptions. However, the absence of
variability in the materials used in 40 years of causal and contingency
learning research has prevented any sort of investigation of this topic.
I will discuss the introduction of variability to human contingency
judgments and the psychological processes involved in distorting perceived
relationships to coincide with our prior assumptions.
11:40–11:55 (47)
Exploring Boundary Conditions for the Conjunction Fallacy in
Probabilistic Reasoning. DOUGLAS H. WEDELL & RODRIGO
MORO, University of South Carolina—Two experiments used withinsubjects
designs to examine how conjunction errors depend on
(1) choice versus estimation tasks, (2) probability versus frequency
language, and (3) conjunctions of two likely events versus conjunctions
of likely and unlikely events. All problems included a threeoption
format verified to minimize misinterpretation of the base
event. In both experiments, conjunction errors were lower for estimation
than for choice. Errors were also reduced when likely events were
conjoined, with this reduction greater for estimation, an interaction
effect. Shifting conceptual focus from probabilities to frequencies did
not affect conjunction error rates. Analyses of numerical estimates for
a subset of the problems provided support for the use of three general
models by participants in estimation. Strikingly, the order in which
each task was carried out (choice vs. estimation) did not affect the pattern
of results, supporting the idea that the response mode strongly determines
the mode of thinking.
Movement Control
Beacon B, Friday Morning, 10:20–12:00
Chaired by Martina Rieger
Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences
10:20–10:35 (48)
Spatial Representations in Skilled Typing: Keys and Names. MAR-
TINA RIEGER, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain
Sciences—Seeing a letter automatically activates effector-dependent
and spatial representations in skilled typists (Rieger, 2004). Here spatial
representations were further investigated; the spatial position (key-