Current Topics
Association for Psychological Science
www.psychologicalscience.org
Is the Map in Our Head Oriented
North?
• Psychological Science February 2012 23: 120125, first published on December 29, 2011
– Julia Frankenstein, Center for Cognitive Science, University
of Freiburg, Friedrichstrasse 50, 79098 Freiburg, Germany
– Tobias Meilinger, Max Planck Institute for Biological
Cybernetics, Spemannstrasse 38, 72076 Tübingen
Abstract
• We examined how a highly familiar environmental space—one’s city of
residence—is represented in memory. Twenty-six participants faced a
photo-realistic virtual model of their hometown and completed a task in
which they pointed to familiar target locations from various orientations.
Each participant’s performance was most accurate when he or she was
facing north, and errors increased as participants’ deviation from a northfacing orientation increased. Pointing errors and latencies were not
related to the distance between participants’ initial locations and the
target locations. Our results are inconsistent with accounts of orientationfree memory and with theories assuming that the storage of spatial
knowledge depends on local reference frames. Although participants
recognized familiar local views in their initial locations, their strategy for
pointing relied on a single, north-oriented reference frame that was likely
acquired from maps rather than experience from daily exploration. Even
though participants had spent significantly more time navigating the city
than looking at maps, their pointing behavior seemed to rely on a northoriented mental map.
The Misperception of Sexual Interest
• Carin Perilloux, Judith A. Easton, and David M.
Buss
• Psychological Science February 2012 23: 146151, first published on January 18, 2012
Abstract
• In the current study (N = 199), we utilized a speed-meeting
methodology to investigate misperceptions of sexual interest. This
method allowed us to evaluate the magnitude of men’s
overperception of women’s sexual interest, to examine whether
and how women misperceive men’s sexual interest, and to assess
individual differences in susceptibility to sexual misperception. We
found strong support for the prediction that women would
underestimate men’s sexual interest. Men who were more oriented
toward short-term mating strategies or who rated themselves more
attractive were more likely to overperceive women’s sexual interest.
The magnitude of men’s overperception of women’s sexual interest
was predicted by the women’s physical attractiveness. We discuss
implications of gender differences and within-sex individual
differences in susceptibility to sexual misperception.
Religiosity, Social Self-Esteem, and
Psychological Adjustment: On the CrossCultural Specificity of the Psychological Benefits
of Religiosity
• Jochen E. Gebauer, Constantine Sedikides, and
Wiebke Neberich
• Psychological Science February 2012 23: 158160, first published on January 5, 2012
Conculsions
• The religiosity-as-social-value hypothesis posits that the
psychological benefits of religiosity (benefits to social self-esteem
and psychological adjustment) are culturally specific: They should
be stronger in countries that tend to value religiosity more. Data
from more than 180,000 individuals across 11 countries were
consistent with this prediction.
• Overall, believers claimed greater social self-esteem and
psychological adjustment than nonbelievers did. However, culture
qualified this effect. Believers enjoyed psychological benefits in
countries that tended to value religiosity, but did not differ from
nonbelievers in countries that did not tend to value religiosity.
Replication of this pattern with non-self-report data would be
desirable. Regardless, the results suggest that religiosity, albeit a
potent force, confers benefits by riding on cultural values.
Bright Minds and Dark Attitudes
• Lower Cognitive Ability Predicts Greater
Prejudice Through Right-Wing Ideology and
Low Intergroup Contact
• Gordon Hodson & Michael A. Busseri
• Psychological Science February 2012 vol. 23
no. 2 187-195
Abstract
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Despite their important implications for interpersonal behaviors and relations,
cognitive abilities have been largely ignored as explanations of prejudice.
We proposed and tested mediation models in which lower cognitive ability
predicts greater prejudice, an effect mediated through the endorsement of rightwing ideologies (social conservatism, right-wing authoritarianism) and low levels of
contact with out-groups.
In an analysis of two large-scale, nationally representative United Kingdom data
sets (N = 15,874), we found that lower general intelligence (g) in childhood
predicts greater racism in adulthood, and this effect was largely mediated via
conservative ideology.
A secondary analysis of a U.S. data set confirmed a predictive effect of poor
abstract-reasoning skills on anti-homosexual prejudice, a relation partially
mediated by both authoritarianism and low levels of intergroup contact. All
analyses controlled for education and socioeconomic status.
Our results suggest that cognitive abilities play a critical, albeit underappreciated,
role in prejudice. Consequently, we recommend a heightened focus on cognitive
ability in research on prejudice and a better integration of cognitive ability into
prejudice models.
Living Large
• The Powerful Overestimate Their Own Height
• Psychological Science January 2012 vol. 23 no.
1 36-40
Abstract
• In three experiments, we tested the prediction that individuals’
experience of power influences their perceptions of their own
height. High power, relative to low power, was associated with
smaller estimates of a pole’s height relative to the self (Experiment
1), with larger estimates of one’s own height (Experiment 2), and
with choice of a taller avatar to represent the self in a second-life
game (Experiment 3). These results emerged regardless of whether
power was experientially primed (Experiments 1 and 3) or
manipulated through assigned roles (Experiment 2).
• Although a great deal of research has shown that more physically
imposing individuals are more likely to acquire power, this work is
the first to show that powerful people feel taller than they are. The
discussion considers the implications for existing and future
research on the physical experience of power.
Identifying and Remediating Failures
of Selective Attention in Older Drivers
• Alexander Pollatsek, Matthew R. E. Romoser, and
Donald L. Fisher
• Current Directions in Psychological Science February
2012 21: 3-7,
• Together, these findings indicate that older drivers’ less
frequent scanning of regions at intersections from
which hazards may emerge may be due to their
developing something like an unsafe habit rather than
to deteriorating physical or mental capabilities and
thus that training may be effective in reducing crashes.
The Nature and Organization of Individual
Differences in Executive Functions: Four
General Conclusions
• Current Directions in Psychological Science
February 2012 21: 8-14,
Abstract
• Executive functions (EFs)—a set of general-purpose control
processes that regulate one’s thoughts and behaviors—have
become a popular research topic lately and have been studied in
many subdisciplines of psychological science. This article
summarizes the EF research that our group has conducted to
understand the nature of individual differences in EFs and their
cognitive and biological underpinnings.
• In the context of a new theoretical framework that we have been
developing (the unity/diversity framework), we describe four
general conclusions that have emerged. Specifically, we argue that
individual differences in EFs, as measured with simple laboratory
tasks, (a) show both unity and diversity (different EFs are correlated
yet separable), (b) reflect substantial genetic contributions, (c) are
related to various clinically and societally important phenomena,
and (d) show some developmental stability.
More in latest issue of Current
Directions in Psychological Science
• Self-Control and Aggression
• Risky Decisions: Active Risk Management
• Beyond Comprehension: The Role of
Numeracy in Judgments and Decisions
• Broken Hearts and Broken Bones: A Neural
Perspective on the Similarities Between
Social and Physical Pain
• Dissociation and Dissociative Disorders:
Challenging Conventional Wisdom
More …
• Motivational Salience: Amygdala Tuning
From Traits, Needs, Values, and Goal
• Patients’ Perceptions of Their Illness: The
Dynamo of Volition in Health Care
• Psychopathic Personality: Bridging the Gap
Between Scientific Evidence and Public Policy
• Linking Process and Outcome in the Study of
Emotion and Aging