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Jalalian P, Svensson S, Golubickis M, Sharma Y, Macrae CN. Stimulus valence moderates self-learning. Cogn Emot 2024; 38:884-897. [PMID: 38576360 DOI: 10.1080/02699931.2024.2331817] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/05/2022] [Revised: 02/01/2024] [Accepted: 03/11/2024] [Indexed: 04/06/2024]
Abstract
Self-relevance has been demonstrated to impair instrumental learning. Compared to unfamiliar symbols associated with a friend, analogous stimuli linked with the self are learned more slowly. What is not yet understood, however, is whether this effect extends beyond arbitrary stimuli to material with intrinsically meaningful properties. Take, for example, stimulus valence an established moderator of self-bias. Does the desirability of to-be-learned material influence self-learning? Here, in conjunction with computational modelling (i.e. Reinforcement Learning Drift Diffusion Model analysis), a probabilistic selection task was used to establish if and how stimulus valence (i.e. desirable/undesirable posters) impacts the acquisition of knowledge relating to object-ownership (i.e. owned-by-self vs. owned-by-friend). Several interesting results were observed. First, undesirable posters were learned more rapidly for self compared to friend, an effect that was reversed for desirable posters. Second, learning rates were accompanied by associated differences in reward sensitivity toward desirable and undesirable choice selections as a function of ownership. Third, decisional caution was greater for self-relevant (vs. friend relevant) responses. Collectively, these findings inform understanding of self-function and how valence and stimulus relevance mutually influence probabilistic learning.
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Affiliation(s)
- Parnian Jalalian
- School of Psychology, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Scotland, UK
| | - Saga Svensson
- School of Psychology, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Scotland, UK
| | - Marius Golubickis
- School of Psychology, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Scotland, UK
| | - Yadvi Sharma
- School of Psychology, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Scotland, UK
| | - C Neil Macrae
- School of Psychology, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Scotland, UK
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Sharma Y, Persson LM, Golubickis M, Jalalian P, Falbén JK, Macrae CN. Facial first impressions are not mandatory: A priming investigation. Cognition 2023; 241:105620. [PMID: 37741097 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2023.105620] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/28/2023] [Revised: 09/05/2023] [Accepted: 09/07/2023] [Indexed: 09/25/2023]
Abstract
A common assertion is that, based around prominent character traits, first impressions are spontaneously extracted from faces. Specifically, mere exposure to a person is sufficient to trigger the involuntary extraction of core personality characteristics (e.g., trustworthiness, dominance, competence), an outcome that supports a range of significant judgments (e.g., hiring, investing, electing). But is this in fact the case? Noting ambiguities in the extant literature, here we used a repetition priming procedure to probe the extent to which impressions of dominance are extracted from faces absent the instruction to evaluate the stimuli in this way. Across five experiments in which either the character trait of interest was made increasingly obvious to participants (Expts. 1-3) or attention was explicitly directed toward the faces to generate low-level/high-level judgments (Expts. 4 & 5), no evidence for the spontaneous extraction of first impressions was observed. Instead, priming only emerged when judgments of dominance were an explicit requirement of the task at hand. Thus, at least using a priming methodology, the current findings contest the notion that first impressions are a mandatory product of person perception.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yadvi Sharma
- School of Psychology, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK.
| | - Linn M Persson
- School of Psychology, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK
| | | | | | - Johanna K Falbén
- Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
| | - C Neil Macrae
- School of Psychology, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK
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Falbén JK, Golubickis M, Tsamadi D, Persson LM, Macrae CN. The power of the unexpected: Prediction errors enhance stereotype-based learning. Cognition 2023; 235:105386. [PMID: 36773491 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2023.105386] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/02/2022] [Revised: 01/24/2023] [Accepted: 01/25/2023] [Indexed: 02/12/2023]
Abstract
Stereotyping is a ubiquitous feature of social cognition, yet surprisingly little is known about how group-related beliefs influence the acquisition of person knowledge. Accordingly, in combination with computational modeling (i.e., Reinforcement Learning Drift Diffusion Model analysis), here we used a probabilistic selection task to explore the extent to which gender stereotypes impact instrumental learning. Several theoretically interesting effects were observed. First, reflecting the impact of cultural socialization on person construal, an expectancy-based preference for stereotype-consistent (vs. stereotype-inconsistent) responses was observed. Second, underscoring the potency of unexpected information, learning rates were faster for counter-stereotypic compared to stereotypic individuals, both for negative and positive prediction errors. Collectively, these findings are consistent with predictive accounts of social perception and have implications for the conditions under which stereotyping can potentially be reduced.
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Affiliation(s)
- Johanna K Falbén
- School of Psychology, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Scotland, UK; Department of Psychology, University of Warwick, Coventry, England, UK.
| | - Marius Golubickis
- School of Psychology, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Scotland, UK
| | - Dimitra Tsamadi
- School of Psychology, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Scotland, UK
| | - Linn M Persson
- School of Psychology, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Scotland, UK
| | - C Neil Macrae
- School of Psychology, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Scotland, UK
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Persson LM, Falbén JK, Tsamadi D, Macrae CN. People perception and stereotype-based responding: task context matters. PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH 2022; 87:1219-1231. [PMID: 35994097 DOI: 10.1007/s00426-022-01724-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/13/2021] [Accepted: 08/02/2022] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Whether group impact social perception is a topic of renewed theoretical and empirical interest. In particular, it remains unclear when and how the composition of a group influences a core component of social cognition-stereotype-based responding. Accordingly, exploring this issue, here we investigated the extent to which different task requirements moderate the stereotype-related products of people perception. Following the presentation of same-sex groups that varied in facial typicality (i.e., high or low femininity/masculinity), participants had to report either the gender-related status of target words (i.e., a group-irrelevant gender-classification task) or whether the items were stereotypic or counter-stereotypic with respect to the preceding groups (i.e., a group-relevant stereotype-status task). Critically, facial typicality only impacted performance in the stereotype-status task. A further computational analysis (i.e., Diffusion Model) traced this effect to the combined operation of stimulus processing and response biases during decision-making. Specifically, evidence accumulation was faster when targets followed groups that were high (vs. low) in typicality and these arrays also triggered a stronger bias toward stereotypic (vs. counter-stereotypic) responses. Collectively, these findings elucidate when and how group variability influences people perception.
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Affiliation(s)
- Linn M Persson
- School of Psychology, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, AB24 3FX, Scotland, UK.
| | - Johanna K Falbén
- School of Psychology, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, AB24 3FX, Scotland, UK.,Department of Psychology, University of Warwick, Coventry, England, UK
| | - Dimitra Tsamadi
- School of Psychology, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, AB24 3FX, Scotland, UK
| | - C Neil Macrae
- School of Psychology, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, AB24 3FX, Scotland, UK
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Alt NP, Phillips LT. Person Perception, Meet People Perception: Exploring the Social Vision of Groups. PERSPECTIVES ON PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE 2021; 17:768-787. [PMID: 34797731 DOI: 10.1177/17456916211017858] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
Groups, teams, and collectives-people-are incredibly important to human behavior. People live in families, work in teams, and celebrate and mourn together in groups. Despite the huge variety of human group activity and its fundamental importance to human life, social-psychological research on person perception has overwhelmingly focused on its namesake, the person, rather than expanding to consider people perception. By looking to two unexpected partners, the vision sciences and organization behavior, we find emerging work that presents a path forward, building a foundation for understanding how people perceive other people. And yet this nascent field is missing critical insights that scholars of social vision might offer: specifically, for example, the chance to connect perception to behavior through the mediators of cognition and motivational processes. Here, we review emerging work across the vision and social sciences to extract core principles of people perception: efficiency, capacity, and complexity. We then consider complexity in more detail, focusing on how people perception modifies person-perception processes and enables the perception of group emergent properties as well as group dynamics. Finally, we use these principles to discuss findings and outline areas fruitful for future work. We hope that fellow scholars take up this people-perception call.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicholas P Alt
- Department of Psychology, California State University, Long Beach
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