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• The present study examined 4- to 7-year-olds' second-order belief in false testimony. • Children observed an informant lie to a receiver in a sticker-hiding game. • The receiver was either ignorant (did not peek) or knowledgeable (peeked). • Children predicted an ignorant receiver would believe a lie more readily than a knowledgeable one. • Second-order theory-of-mind and executive function moderated this effect. Children are often third-party observers of conversations between informants and receivers. Although 5- and 6-year-olds can identify and reject informants' false testimony, it remains unclear whether they expect others to do the same. Accurately assessing others' impressions of informants and their testimony in a conversational setting is essential for children's navigation of the social world. Using a novel second-order lie detection task, the current study examined whether 4- to 7-year-olds (N = 74; M age = 69 months) take receivers' epistemic states into account when predicting whether a receiver would think an informant is truthful or deceptive. We pitted children's firsthand observations of reality against informants' false testimony while manipulating receivers' perceptual access to a sticker-hiding event. Results showed that when the receiver had perceptual access and was knowledgeable, children predicted that the receiver would think the informant is lying. Critically, when the receiver lacked perceptual access and was ignorant, children were significantly more likely to predict that the receiver would think the informant is telling the truth. Second-order theory of mind and executive function strengthened this effect. Findings are interpreted using a dual-process framework and provide new insights into children's understanding of others' selective trust and susceptibility to deception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract In this study, degradation of a pharmaceutical drug, Phenazone (PNZ) has been carried out via heterogeneous photocatalysis, photo-Fenton and in-situ dual process (photocatalysis + photo-Fenton) in suspension and fixed-mode under artificial UV-A as well as under natural solar radiations. Waste material such as foundry sand (FS) was exploited as a supplement for iron in case of photo-Fenton reaction. The distinct processes including photocatalysis and photo-Fenton were found to be competent for the degradation of PNZ as both processes revealed an almost 90–95% removal of PNZ after 180 min of UV irradiations. The degradation was improved to a great extent with remarkable reduction in treatment time of PNZ to almost 105 min when these two individual processes were combined together within the same unit. An almost 14% synergy of dual process over distinct processes was obtained. For fixed-bed studies, TiO 2 immobilized hollow circular composite disc already containing FS was utilized which yielded an almost 96% reduction in the concentration of PNZ after 4 h of solar irradiations. The disc was recycled 10 times and its stability and activity was confirmed through XRD, SEM/EDS, and DRS. The mineralization of PNZ was confirmed through significant reduction in COD and generation of anions during the treatment process. The transformation products were examined through GC-MS analysis. The novel technique of in-situ dual process especially in fixed-mode visualized in this study by employing renewable energy and durable catalyst can represent a viable solution to various industries for the treatment of wastewater comprising of bio-recalcitrant pollutants. Graphical abstract Image 1 Highlights • An economically viable process has been studied for the treatment of wastewater. • Waste foundry sand was used as an iron source. • Synergistic results over discrete processes were obtained through dual process. • Treatment time of phenazone was significantly reduced via dual process. • Fe-TiO 2 composite disc was recycled 10 times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Stronger ESP, PK and afterlife believers made more conjunction errors (CEs). • Believers also made more confirmatory (verses disconfirmatory) CEs. • Individuals with low (versus high) NFC made marginally more confirmatory CEs. • Intuitive-experiential thinking had no impact on CE rates. • Findings are consistent with Tentori, Crupi, & Russo (2013) Confirmation-Theoretical Framework. Abstract This study examines the extent to which belief in extrasensory perception (ESP), psychokinesis (PK) or life after death (LAD), plus need for cognition (NFC) and faith in intuition (FI), predict the generation of confirmatory conjunction errors. An opportunity sample (n = 261) completed sixteen conjunction problems manipulated across a 2 event type (paranormal vs. non-paranormal) × 2 outcome type (confirmatory vs. disconfirmatory) within subjects design. Three Generalised Linear Mixed Models – one per paranormal belief type – were performed. With respondent gender and age controlled for, ESP, PK and LAD beliefs were all associated with the making (vs. non-making) of conjunction errors both generally and specifically for confirmatory conjunctive outcomes. Event type had no impact. Individuals high in NFC were less likely to commit the fallacy. The role thinking style plays in shaping paranormal believers' susceptibility to confirmatory conjunction biases is discussed. Methodological issues and future research ideas are also considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract A finite-population, discrete-generation model of cultural evolution is described, in which multiple discrete traits are transmitted independently. In this model, each newborn may inherit a trait from multiple cultural parents. Transmission fails with a positive probability unlike in population genetics. An ancestral process simulating the cultural genealogy of a sample of individuals is derived for this model. This ancestral process, denoted by M − , is shown to be dual to a process M + describing the change in the frequency of a trait. The age–frequency spectrum is defined as a two-dimensional array whose (i , k) element is the expected number of distinct cultural traits introduced k generations ago and now carried by i individuals in a sample of a particular size n. Numerical calculations reveal that the age–frequency spectrum and related metrics undergo a critical transition from a phase with a moderate number of young, rare traits to a phase with numerous very old, common traits when the expected number of cultural parents per individual exceeds one. It is shown that M + and M − converge to branching or deterministic processes, depending on the way population size tends to infinity, and these limiting processes bear some duality relationships. The critical behavior of the original processes M + and M − is explained in terms of a phase transition of the branching processes. Using the results of the limiting processes in combination, we derive analytical formulae that well approximate the age–frequency spectrum and also other metrics. Highlights • An ancestral process is described to simulate the genealogy of a cultural trait. • This ancestral process is dual to a forward-time process of cultural evolution. • Metrics potentially useful for inferring ages of traits are defined. • Limiting processes are derived for approximate computation of the metrics. • Critical behaviors of the metrics are explained in terms of phase transition theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Systematic research into implicit learning requires well-developed awareness-measurement techniques. Recently, trial-by-trial measures have been widely used. However, they can increase complexity of a study because they are an additional experimental variable. We tested the effects of these measures on performance in artificial grammar learning study. Four groups of participants were assigned to different awareness measures conditions: confidence ratings, post-decision wagering, decision strategy attribution or none. Decision-strategy-attribution participants demonstrated better grammar learning and longer response times compared to controls. They also exhibited a conservative bias. Grammaticality by itself was a stronger predictor of strings endorsement in decision-strategy-attribution group compared to other groups. Confidence ratings and post-decision wagering only affected the response times. These results were supported by an additional experiment that used a balanced chunk strength design. We conclude that a decision-strategy-attribution procedure may force participants to adopt an analytical decision-making strategy and rely mostly on conscious knowledge of artificial grammar. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two lines of previous research have found that revenge can make people feel worse, contrary to conventional wisdom about the hedonic benefits (i.e. “sweetness”) of revenge (Carlsmith, Wilson, & Gilbert, 2008; Lambert, Peak, Eadeh, & Schott, 2014). However, such findings appear inconsistent with general principles arising from the justice literature, which implies that people should feel satisfaction when they perceive that transgressors have been punished for their misdeeds. In this paper, we use a variety of different measures of affect (mood, linguistic analyses, direct ratings of emotional reactions) to show that revenge is capable of producing both negative (“bitter”) and favorable (“sweet”) reactions. In particular, we find support for a bittersweet model of revenge, in that such acts concurrently elicit genuinely positive appraisals, over and above the elicitation of negative affect. We consider the implications of our research for a more nuanced understanding of the dynamics of revenge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research suggests that the defensive strategy used by people who score high on attachment-related avoidance when they encounter interpersonal threats involves two stages: automatic vigilance followed by effortful avoidance. In two studies we varied stimulus exposure times and cognitive load to determine how attention is regulated by avoidant individuals. Results indicate that avoidant individuals were vigilant toward contempt faces when the faces were presented for 100 ms but quickly disengaged from them when the faces were presented for 750 ms. Moreover, avoidant participants could disengage from contempt faces presented for 750 ms while rehearsing a simple 1-digit number, but not when rehearsing a 7-digit number, suggesting that avoidant disengagement is a cognitively effortful process. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] Menstrual cycle phase modulated memory quality in terms of changes in recollection-based memory for negative stimuli. [•] Menstrual cycle phase modulated activity in the anterior hippocampus for negative as well as positive stimuli. [•] Modulations of neural activity in the posterior hippocampus, the amygdala and the anterior cingulate were valence specific. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The time course of different metacognitive experiences of knowledge was investigated using artificial grammar learning. Experiment 1 revealed that when participants are aware of the basis of their judgments (conscious structural knowledge) decisions are made most rapidly, followed by decisions made with conscious judgment but without conscious knowledge of underlying structure (unconscious structural knowledge), and guess responses (unconscious judgment knowledge) were made most slowly, even when controlling for differences in confidence and accuracy. In experiment 2, short response deadlines decreased the accuracy of unconscious but not conscious structural knowledge. Conversely, the deadline decreased the proportion of conscious structural knowledge in favour of guessing. Unconscious structural knowledge can be applied rapidly but becomes more reliable with additional metacognitive processing time whereas conscious structural knowledge is an all-or-nothing response that cannot always be applied rapidly. These dissociations corroborate quite separate theories of recognition (dual-process) and metacognition (higher order thought and cross-order integration). [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Although fear of death features prominently in many historical and contemporary theories as a major motivational factor in religious belief, the empirical evidence available is ambivalent, and limited, we argue, by imprecise measures of belief and insufficient attention to the distinction between implicit and explicit aspects of cognition. The present research used both explicit (questionnaire) and implicit (single-target implicit association test; property verification) measurement techniques to examine how thoughts of death influence, specifically, belief in religious supernatural agents. When primed with death, participants explicitly defended their own religious worldview, such that self-described Christians were more confident that supernatural religious entities exist, while non-religious participants were more confident that they do not. However, when belief was measured implicitly, death priming increased all participants'' beliefs in religious supernatural entities, regardless of their prior religious commitments. The results are interpreted in terms of a dual-process model of religious cognition, which can be used to resolve conflicting prior data, as well as to help explain the perplexing durability of religious belief. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper investigates the time it takes unconscious vs. conscious knowledge to form by using an improved “no-loss gambling” method to measure awareness of knowing. Subjects could either bet on a transparently random process or on their grammaticality judgment in an artificial grammar learning task. A conflict in the literature is resolved concerning whether unconscious rather than conscious knowledge is especially fast or slow to form. When guessing (betting on a random process), accuracy was above chance and RTs were longer than when feeling confident (betting on the grammaticality decision). In a second experiment, short response deadlines only interfered with the quality of confident decisions (betting on grammaticality). When people are unaware of their knowledge, externally enforced decisions can be made rapidly with little decline in quality; but if given ample time, they await a metacognitive process to complete. The dissociation validates no-loss gambling as a measure of conscious awareness. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The present study tested diffusion models of processing in the flanker task, in which participants identify a target that is flanked by items that indicate the same (congruent) or opposite response (incongruent). Single- and dual-process flanker models were implemented in a diffusion-model framework and tested against data from experiments that manipulated response bias, speed/accuracy tradeoffs, attentional focus, and stimulus configuration. There was strong mimcry among the models, and each captured the main trends in the data for the standard conditions. However, when more complex conditions were used, a single-process spotlight model captured qualitative and quantitative patterns that the dual-process models could not. Since the single-process model provided the best balance of fit quality and parsimony, the results indicate that processing in the simple versions of the flanker task is better described by gradual rather than discrete narrowing of attention. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Numerous studies have shown the importance of incentives as well as of attitudes in explaining pro-environmental behavior. Reported attitude effects, however, are generally rather small and exhibit considerable variation among studies. Different theoretical perspectives can account for this finding: whereas theories of rational action suggest additive effects of costs and attitudes, the low-cost hypothesis and dual-process theories imply interaction effects – in different directions, resulting from different mechanisms. The present study tries to overcome the shortcomings of past research by using advanced statistical methods to test competitive hypotheses in the context of post-consumer waste recycling. We utilize data from a natural experiment on recycling participation in Cologne/Germany (n =1882) in which the incentive structure for recycling changed due to the conversion of the recycling scheme from a drop-off system to curbside collection. In order to avoid self-selection bias, we conducted pre- and post-treatment surveys and applied conditional fixed-effects regression models. We found that curbside collection had a strong impact on recycling participation and attitudes had a moderate effect. The interaction is negative but statistically insignificant. Our findings contradict the low-cost hypothesis and provide some evidence that environmental concerns moderate the effect of the recycling scheme. We cannot, however, reject the rational choice proposition of mere additive effects. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: When primed with a Black face, people are more likely to misidentify a non-weapon as a weapon. Weapon misidentification may hinge on the distinction between controlled and automatic processes. Various relationships between controlled and automatic processes are cast in the form of five multinomial process models, which are illustrated and compared. It is shown that variants of the traditional Process Dissociation model and the Stroop model are nested within the Quad-Model. Across four different studies, various complexity corrected model performance measures converged to support the Process Dissociation account. This account suggests that the automatic association between race and weapons is subordinate to controlled processing. More generally, these results suggest that the weapon-bias might be alleviated without interventions that directly target stereotypes. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: There is a need to investigate exactly how memory breaks down in the course of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Examining what aspects of memorial processing remain relatively intact early in the disease process will allow us to develop behavioral interventions and possible drug therapies focused on these intact processes. Several recent studies have worked to understand the processes of recollection and familiarity in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and very mild AD. Although there is general agreement that these patient groups are relatively unable to use recollection to support veridical recognition decisions, there has been some question as to how well these patients can use familiarity. The current study used receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves and a depth of processing manipulation to understand the effect of MCI and AD on the estimates of recollection and familiarity. Results showed that patients with MCI and AD were impaired in both recollection and familiarity, regardless of the depth of encoding. These results are discussed in relation to disease pathology and in the context of recent conflicting evidence as to whether familiarity remains intact in patients with MCI. The authors highlight differences in stimuli type and task difficulty as possibly modulating the ability of these patients to successfully use familiarity in support of memorial decisions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: An experiment tested three competing hypotheses for how blatant and subtle stereotype threat cues influence the performance of female sports participants on a golf-putting task. A “predominant” model predicts that blatant threat cues have a more negative effect on performance than subtle threat cues, whereas an “additive” model predicts that both cues combine to have a greater negative effect than either threat cue alone. However, a “dual process” model predicts that each threat cue has an independent negative influence through separate mechanisms. To test these predictions, we varied the presence of blatant (e.g., the task frame) and subtle cues (e.g., the gender of the experimenter) for negative stereotypes about female athletes, and then measured both the number of strokes required to finish the course and accuracy on the last putt of each hole. The results supported the dual process model prediction: females required more strokes to finish the golf task when it was framed as measuring gender differences compared to racial differences in athletic ability, and females performed less accurately on the last putt of each hole in the presence of a male versus a female experimenter. The discussion focuses on how the presence of multiple stereotype threat cues can induce independent mechanisms that may have separate but simultaneously deleterious effects on performance. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Excess intake of 'free sugars' is a key predictor of chronic disease, obesity, and dental ill health. Given the importance of determining modifiable predictors of free sugar-related dietary behaviors, we applied the integrated behavior change model to predict free sugar limiting behaviors. The model includes constructs representing 'reasoned' or deliberative processes that lead to action (e.g., social cognition constructs, intentions), and constructs representing 'non-conscious' or implicit processes (e.g., implicit attitudes, behavioral automaticity) as predictors of behavior. Undergraduate students (N = 205) completed measures of autonomous and controlled motivation, the theory of planned behavior (TPB) measures of explicit attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control (PBC), and intentions, past behavior, implicit attitude, and behavioral automaticity at an initial point in time, and free sugar limiting behavior and behavioral automaticity two weeks later. A Bayesian structural equation model indicated that explicit attitude, subjective norms, and PBC predicted behavior via intention. Autonomous motivation predicted behavior indirectly through all TPB variables, while controlled motivation predicted behavior only via subjective norms. Implicit attitudes and behavioral automaticity predicted behavior directly and independently. Past behavior predicted behavior directly and indirectly through behavioral automaticity and intentions, but not implicit attitudes. Current findings suggest pervasive effects of constructs representing both reasoned and non-conscious processes and signpost potential targets for behavioral interventions aimed at minimizing free sugar consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Stronger femininity directly predicts more intuitive thinking. • Stronger femininity directly predicts more anomalous experiences and belief. • Less rational thinking directly predicts more anomalous fear. • More intuitive thinking mediates several gender role-paranormality relationships. • Findings are consistent with a gender role account of adult paranormality. This study examines the extent to which masculine and feminine gender role orientations predict self-reported anomalous experiences, belief, ability and fear once relevant correlates including biological sex are controlled for. The extent to which rational versus intuitive thinking style preference mediates these relationships is also examined. Path analysis (n = 332) found heightened femininity directly predicts stronger intuitive preference plus more anomalous experiences, belief and fear with, additionally, intuitive preference mediating several gender role-paranormality relationships. By comparison, heightened masculinity directly predicts both thinking styles plus lower anomalous fear. The latter relationship is also shaped by the nature of mediators with (a) more anomalous experiences and belief associated with more anomalous fear and (b) either heightened rationality else more anomalous ability linked to, conversely, less anomalous fear. The extent to which findings support a gender (or social) role account of adult paranormality, together with methodological limitations and ideas for future research, is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]