Current Topics

Association for Psychological Sciencewww.psychologicalscience.org

Is the Map in Our Head Oriented North?

• Psychological Science February 2012 23: 120-125, 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 north-facing 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 orientation-free 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 north-oriented mental map.

The Misperception of Sexual Interest

• Carin Perilloux, Judith A. Easton, and David M. Buss

• Psychological Science February 2012 23: 146-151, 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 Cross-

Cultural Specificity of the Psychological Benefits of Religiosity

• Jochen E. Gebauer, Constantine Sedikides, and Wiebke Neberich

• Psychological Science February 2012 23: 158-160, 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• 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 right-wing 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