Research Digest Free every fortnight Issue 169 Contents: 1. Talking on a mobile phone, you’re less likely to notice a unicycling clown
2. Snakes in a brain scanner
3. The links between bloggers’ personalities and their use of words
4. Effect of anger on negotiations depends on cultural context
5. Lecturers should provide PowerPoint handouts before the lecture
6. With wrinkles, it’s the quality, not their location, that ages you most
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Subscribe free at www.researchdigest.org.uk/blog Research Digest Free every fortnight Talking on a mobile phone, you’re less likely to notice a unicycling clown Countless studies have demonstrated that drivers talking on a mobile are slower to brake, less likely to stay in lane
and more likely not to notice information and hazards. However, these studies have been criticised for their lack of
realism. When people talk on their mobiles while driving in real life, they're usually in their own car, using their
own mobile, perhaps in a familiar street environment, chatting to someone they know. By contrast, the lab studies
usually involve car simulators, unfamiliar routes, phones and conversation partners.
Ira Hyman and colleagues at Western Washington University think a key reason for the adverse cognitive effects of
talking on a mobile phone has to do with 'inattentional blindness' - the failure to notice new information in the
environment. To circumvent the limitations of the car studies, they've performed a stripped-down, naturalistic study
of people walking diagonally 375 feet across their university's Red Square. They noted whether people walking this
popular route were talking on a mobile, listening to an iPod, talking with another person who was present, or just
walking on their own without any distractions. When these individuals reached the other side of the square, the
researchers asked them if they'd noticed the unicycling clown positioned strategically just to the side of the
diagonal path. Their report dryly notes the rationale:
'Unicyclists are very rare on campus pathways and none of the authors have ever observed a unicycling clown on
campus. Since the clown was unicycling near the walking path, this was clearly relevant to the task of safely
navigating across Red Square (besides, you never know when a clown may throw a cream pie in your face).'
The take-home message was that of the 151 people who were monitored, the 24 who'd been chatting on a mobile
were significantly less likely than the others to have noticed the unicycling clown - 25 per cent of phone users
noticed him, compared with 51 per cent of people walking on their own, 61 per cent of music listeners and 71 per
cent of people walking in pairs. The result provides further evidence that talking on a mobile phone induces
inattentional blindness in a way that listening to music or talking to a person who is present does not (in fact, the
company of another person who is present increased vigilance, an effect also found in driving simulator studies).
In an earlier part of this study, Hyman and her colleagues found that people crossing the Red Square while chatting
on a phone tended to walk more slowly, to weave and to change directions more than other walkers, perhaps
because of the effects of increased inattentional blindness.
Although talking on mobile phones while driving has been banned in many countries, many people continue to
believe that they are unaffected by using their phone. This could be because by definition we're not aware of what
we've missed. '...[I]ndividuals in our study who did not report seeing the unicycling clown were generally surprised
that they missed him,' the researchers said. 'Unfortunately, when driving a car while talking on a cell phone, people
may be unaware of what they are missing until it is too late.'
_________________________________
Hyman, I., Boss, S., Wise, B., McKenzie, K., & Caggiano, J. (2009). Did you see the unicycling clown?
Inattentional blindness while walking and talking on a cell phone. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 24 (5), 597-607
DOI: 10.1002/acp.1638
Subscribe free at www.researchdigest.org.uk/blog Research Digest Free every fortnight Snakes in a brain scanner! Forget snakes on a plane, this was snakes in a brain scanner! To chart the neural activity associated with
overcoming fear, Uri Nili and colleagues scanned snake-phobic participants' brains while they chose, with the press
of a button, whether or not to bring a live, 1.5M long corn snake, located on a conveyer belt in the scanner room,
nearer to their heads, or to shift it further away (watch video). A control condition replaced the snake with a teddy
bear.
The subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC) - part of the frontal cortex buried under the corpus callosum emerged as a key area involved when participants chose to overcome their fear and bring the snake closer to their
heads - i.e. when they acted courageously. When people reported high fear but chose to bring the snake closer,
sgACC activity increased, whilst physiological markers of fear dropped and activity in emotion processing regions,
such as the amygdala, was reduced. Nili's team said this suggests the sgACC plays a role in dampening down fearrelated bodily arousal. Consistent with this, the sgACC is known to be involved in regulating the paraysmpathetic
nervous system (which is in opposition to the fight or flight response) and is deeply interconnected with brain
structures involved in emotional processing.
In contrast, when courage failed and the participants chose to direct the snake further from them, sgACC activity
dropped away (no longer correlating with fear levels), somatic signs of fear increased, as did activity in emotionprocessing regions like the amygdala.
The only other brain region that was more active during displays of courage was the right temporal pole - a part of
the brain that's known to be involved in modulating emotions triggered by visual stimuli, and also in the selfevaluation and monitoring of one's own emotions.
This new research has some important and exciting implications. From a practical perspective, the fact that bodily
signs of fear were reduced during moments of courage, even while subjective fear was high, raises a concern with
studies that use physiological measures (such as sweatiness of the skin) as a marker for fear. For example, studies
of therapeutic interventions for phobias, which rely on physiological markers, risk mistaking what's in fact a
display of courage for successful fear eradication.
Manipulating sgACC activity could also be a new target for therapy: 'Such interventions may range from training in
meditation techniques that lead to greater activity in this region,' the researchers said, 'to transcranial magnetic
stimulation similar to that attempted to alleviate depression.'
_________________________________
Nili, U., Goldberg, H., Weizman, A., & Dudai, Y. (2010). Fear Thou Not: Activity of Frontal and Temporal
Circuits in Moments of Real-Life Courage. Neuron, 66 (6), 949-962 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2010.06.009
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The links between bloggers’ personalities and their use of words You can tell a person's personality from the words they use. Neurotics have a penchant for negative
words; agreeable types for words pertaining to socialising; and so on. We know this from recordings of
people's speech and from brief writing tasks. Now Tal Yarkoni has extended this line of research to the
blogosphere by analysing the content of 694 blogs - containing an average of 115,000 words written over
an average period of about two years - and matching this with the bloggers' (predominantly female;
average age 36) answers to online personality questionnaires.
Some commentators have suggested that the internet allows people to present idealised versions of
themselves to the world. Contrary to that idea, Yarkoni found that bloggers' choice of words consistently
related to their personality type just as has been found in past offline research.
More neurotic bloggers used more words associated with negative emotions; extravert bloggers used
more words pertaining to positive emotions; high scorers on agreeableness avoided swear words and used
more words related to communality; and conscientious bloggers mentioned more words with achievement
connotations. These were all as expected. More of a surprise was the lack of a link between the Big Five
personality factor of 'openness to experience' and word categories related to intellectual or sensory
experience. Instead openness was associated with more use of prepositions, more formal language and
longer words.
The sheer size of the data set at Yarkoni's disposal allowed him to look not only at links between
personality factors and broad word categories (as past research has done) but to also zoom in on the usage
of specific words. Among the most strong and intriguing correlations were: Neuroticism correlated with
use of 'irony' and negatively correlated with 'invited'; Extraversion correlated with 'drinks' and negatively
correlated with 'computer'; Openness correlated with 'ink'; Agreeableness with 'wonderful' and negatively
correlated with 'porn'; and Conscientiousness correlated with 'completed' and negatively correlated with
'boring'.
'The results underscore the importance of studying the influence of personality on word use at multiple
levels of analysis,' Yarkoni concluded, 'and provide a novel approach for refining existing categorical
word taxonomies and identifying new and unexpected associations with personality.'
_________________________________
Yarkoni, T. (2010). Personality in 100,000 Words: A large-scale analysis of personality and word use
among bloggers. Journal of Research in Personality, 44 (3), 363-373 DOI: 10.1016/j.jrp.2010.04.001
Subscribe free at www.researchdigest.org.uk/blog Research Digest Free every fortnight Effect of anger on negotiations depends on cultural context The expression of anger in negotiations can be an effective strategy, several studies have shown, because it is
interpreted by others as a sign of toughness, thus encouraging them to make concessions. However, there's a hefty
caveat to this conclusion because those studies were conducted entirely in a Western context. Now Hajo Adam and
colleagues have attempted to correct this oversight by studying the effect of anger in negotiations conducted by
American students hailing from a Western background and American students with an East Asian ancestry. Adam's
finding is that expressions of anger backfire in negotiations involving people with an East Asian background. A
follow-up study suggested this is because such behaviour is considered culturally inappropriate.
The first study with 63 participants of European ancestry and 67 of East Asian ancestry involved a hypothetical
negotiation situation. The students read a transcript of a negotiation between a salesman and client and imagined
they were the salesman. Half the students read a version in which the client was described at one point as speaking
in an angry tone. The key measure was whether the students said they would agree to add a warranty into the deal
or not. The effect of anger was opposite for the two cultural groups: the Western students were more likely to add
the warranty (i.e. make a concession) if the client got angry whereas the East Asian students were less likely to add
the warranty in this situation.
To increase the realism, a second study involved another 67 European-ancestry students and 88 East Asian-ancestry
students taking part in computer-mediated negotiations in pairs, in which they played the role of mobile phone
seller. The whole affair was actually fixed by the researchers and computer-controlled but the students were tricked
into thinking they were playing with another student. Another twist to the set-up was that the students were
occasionally given a 'sneak insight' into their negotiation partner's typed intentions, for example 'I think I'll offer X'.
Replicating the first study, the key finding here was that when these insights contained an expression of anger (e.g.
'This is really getting on my nerves, I'm going to offer X') the Western-ancestry students were more likely to make
a concession to their negotiation partner whereas the East-Asian ancestry students were less likely to do so.
The final study provided a rather crude test of one possible explanation for the results - that the effect of anger has
to do with what's considered culturally appropriate. Dozens of European and East-Asian-ancestry students took part
in a replication of the computer-mediated negotiation task, but this time half the students were told in advance that
most people express anger in negotiations and that it was acceptable to do so in this study, whereas the other half
were told that expressions of anger were rare and it was not acceptable to get angry in the current task. With these
instructions in place, the effects of cultural background disappeared. Instead, regardless of students' cultural
background, anger was beneficial following the 'anger is ok' instructions whereas it backfired following the 'anger
is unacceptable' instructions.
'Although we believe the present results are an important step in understanding how culture and emotions interact
in negotiations,' the researchers said, 'the increasingly global nature of society highlights the importance of
continuing to investigate the interplay of culture and emotions in a broad array of social settings.'
_________________________________
Adam H, Shirako A, & Maddux WW (2010). Cultural variance in the interpersonal effects of anger in negotiations.
Psychological science : a journal of the American Psychological Society / APS, 21 (6), 882-9 PMID: 20483822
Subscribe free at www.researchdigest.org.uk/blog Research Digest Free every fortnight Lecturers should provide PowerPoint handouts before the lecture The common-sense arguments for and against providing students with slide handouts before a lecture are well
rehearsed. Having the handouts means students need take fewer notes, therefore allowing them to sit back and
actually listen to what's said. Withholding the handouts, by contrast, entices students to make more notes, perhaps
ensuring that they're more engaged with the lecture material rather than mind-wandering.
Elizabeth Marsh and Holli Sink began their investigation of this issue by surveying university students and
lecturers. The student verdict was clear: 74 per cent said they preferred to be given slide handouts prior to the
lecture, the most commonly cited reason being that having the handouts helps with note-taking. The lecturers were
more equivocal. Fifty per cent said they preferred to provide handouts prior to the lecture, but 21 per cent said they
never gave out handouts and 29 per cent preferred to distribute afterwards. The most common lecturer reason for
retaining handouts was students wouldn't pay attention if they had the handouts.
To find out what really works better, Marsh and Sink had several dozen students watch a few 12-minute videos of
real-life PowerPoint science lectures. Sometimes they were given the handouts for use during the lecture; other
times the handouts were only provided later. Half the students were subsequently tested on the lecture material after
a 12-minute delay; the other students were tested a week later. In both cases, a few minutes before testing, the
students were allowed to review their own notes and the handouts (for some of the lectures, this was the first time
the handouts were provided). The key finding is that having handouts in the lecture versus only receiving them at
the review stage made no difference to test performance. Although the students who had the handouts in-lecture
made fewer notes, this didn't harm their test performance at either the 12-minute or 1-week delay.
A follow-up study with 34 students was identical to the first but the testing only took place 12-minutes after the
lectures and this time the review session was self-paced for half the students but just two-minutes long for the
others. Students provided with handouts during the lectures again took fewer notes but this time they actually outperformed those who only received the handouts after the lectures.
The findings provide preliminary evidence that lecturers should provide their students with handouts during the
lecture. Regarding the more extensive note-taking that took place when handouts were held back until after a
lecture, the researchers speculated that this was 'unlikely to be a deep encoding task', which would normally be
expected to aid memory retention, and may instead have acted merely as a distraction.
'The data reported here represent only a first step and do not resolve this issue,' the researchers concluded. 'In no
case, however, did having the handouts during a lecture impair performance on the final tests. Even when there
were no differences in final test performance, students still benefited in the sense that they reached the same level
of learning with less work.'
_________________________________
Marsh, E., & Sink, H. (2009). Access to handouts of presentation slides during lecture: Consequences for learning.
Applied Cognitive Psychology, 24 (5), 691-706 DOI: 10.1002/acp.1579
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With wrinkles, it’s the quantity, not their location, that ages you most
You emerge from bed, drag yourself to the bathroom and peer through heavy, hooded eyelids at the mirror. There
to your horror you see last night's frivolities etched into your face: freshly dug, trench-like furrows, and spidery
lines scrawled across your skin as if by a mindless, scribbling toddler. It's aged you by about ten years - or has it?
Actually, the impact of wrinkles, both in terms of quantity and type, on perceptions of age has been little researched
since the early 1980s. According to a new study, however, it's the number of wrinkles you should be worried about,
less so the location of them. But forced to choose, forehead, nose and mouth wrinkles are apparently more ageing
than bags and wrinkles in the eye region.
Jose Aznar-Casanova and colleagues used computer software - of the kind used by the FBI for suspect photofits to create several dozen male and female faces that differed systematically according to their number (one to four),
depth, and location of wrinkles. The faces were all Caucasian, presented in grey-scale, with no hair or eyebrows the idea was to try to remove the complicating influence of factors besides wrinkles on age judgments.
In an initial study, 99 participants from three age groups categorised these faces into one of eight age groups: child
(3-12 yrs), teenager (13-19 yrs), young adult (20-29 yrs), adult (30-39 yrs), middle-aged (40-49 yrs), senior (50-69
yrs), sexagenerian (60-70 yrs) and elderly (over 70). In a second study, 22 students were presented with pairs of
faces and had to estimate in each case the difference in age between the two.
So what did the researchers find? Unsurprisingly, faces with more wrinkles and deeper furrows were judged to be
older. Moreover, the density of wrinkles had more of an effect on age judgements than differences in location of
wrinkle. However, as mentioned, eye bags tended to have less of an impact on age judgments than other types of
wrinkle, such that a face with eye bags/wrinkles was generally perceived as younger than an equivalent face with
wrinkles to either the nose, forehead or mouth. There was also some limited evidence that wrinkles and shallow
furrows aged male faces more than female faces. Overall, female faces tended to be perceived as younger than male
faces. Finally, the age of the observer made a difference such that the younger participants - preadolescents and
undergrads - tended to judge faces to be younger than did middle-aged participants.
With all the money that's spent in some cultures on cosmetic efforts to appear more youthful, you'd think more
investigations would have been conducted into the precise factors that influence age judgements. This study makes
a start but Aznar-Casanova's team acknowledged there's lots more work to be done: 'It is probably impossible to
take into account, in one single study, all the information that a face can convey. For example, we did not present
experimental stimuli in colour, nor did we include non-Caucasian faces, and we omitted hair and eye-brows from
the faces.'
_________________________________
Aznar-Casanova, J., Torro-Alves, N., & Fukusima, S. (2010). How Much Older Do You Get When a Wrinkle
Appears on Your Face? Modifying Age Estimates by Number of Wrinkles. Aging, Neuropsychology, and
Cognition, 17 (4), 406-421 DOI: 10.1080/13825580903420153
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