Psychological Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

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Open Access
Do different mental models influence cybersecurity behavior? Evaluations via statistical reasoning performance
(2017-11-02) Brase, Gary L.; Vasserman, Eugene Y.; Hsu, William
Cybersecurity research often describes people as understanding internet security in terms of metaphorical mental models (e.g., disease risk, physical security risk, or criminal behavior risk). However, little research has directly evaluated if this is an accurate or productive framework. To assess this question, two experiments asked participants to respond to a statistical reasoning task framed in one of four different contexts (cybersecurity, plus the above alternative models). Each context was also presented using either percentages or natural frequencies, and these tasks were followed by a behavioral likelihood rating. As in previous research, consistent use of natural frequencies promoted correct Bayesian reasoning. There was little indication, however, that any of the alternative mental models generated consistently better understanding or reasoning over the actual cybersecurity context. There was some evidence that different models had some effects on patterns of responses, including the behavioral likelihood ratings, but these effects were small, as compared to the effect of the numerical format manipulation. This points to a need to improve the content of actual internet security warnings, rather than working to change the models users have of warnings.
Open Access
Mechanisms of Individual Differences in Impulsive and Risky Choice in Rats
(2015) Kirkpatrick, Kimberly; Marshall, Andrew T.; Smith, Aaron P.
Mechanisms of Individual Differences in Impulsive and Risky Choice in Rats Kimberly Kirkpatrick Department of Psychological Sciences, Kansas State University Andrew T. Marshall Department of Psychological Sciences, Kansas State University Aaron P.
Open Access
Outcome probability versus magnitude: When waiting benefits one at the cost of the other
(2014-06-03) Young, Michael E.; Webb, Tara L.; Rung, Jillian M.; McCroy, Anthony W.
Using a continuous impulsivity and risk platform (CIRP) that was constructed using a video game engine, choice was assessed under conditions in which waiting produced a continuously increasing probability of an outcome with a continuously decreasing magnitude (Experiment 1) or a continuously increasing magnitude of an outcome with a continuously decreasing probability (Experiment 2). Performance in both experiments reflected a greater desire for a higher probability even though the corresponding wait times produced substantive decreases in overall performance. These tendencies are considered to principally reflect hyperbolic discounting of probability, power discounting of magnitude, and the mathematical consequences of different response rates. Behavior in the CIRP is compared and contrasted with that in the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART).
Open Access
Scene perception from central to peripheral vision
(2017-01-01) Loschky, Lester C.; Nuthmann, A.; Fortenbaugh, F. C.; Levi, D. M.; loschky; Loschky, Lester C.
When we view a real-world scene with both eyes, we see a seamless vista that covers a visual field of more than 200° diameter horizontally and 125° vertically. The entire scene generally appears to have high resolution, contrast, and color saturation, despite the dramatic changes in the optics, anatomy, and physiology of our eyes and visual pathways as the retinal images shift from the center of gaze to the periphery. Thus, a key issue in real-world scene perception is the roles played by central and peripheral vision. Central vision has the highest visual acuity and is where we pay the most attention to objects of interest. However, since central vision only extends out to a radius of roughly 5° around fixation, peripheral vision is the vast majority of our visual field. Yet, the nature of peripheral vision is mysterious, in that our common intuitions about it are often wrong. For example, most people appear to be quite unaware of the limitations of peripheral vision (Lau & Rosenthal, 2011). This is shown by how surprising viewers find demonstrations of the loss of visual resolution with eccentricity, such as failure to detect even roughly calibrated increasing blur with eccentricity using the Geisler and Perry (1998) algorithm (for a demonstration of this, see https://youtu.be/9DTHVRhBcQ0). Conversely, many people would probably be surprised to know that while driving it is possible to maintain one's lane position using only peripheral vision even while using central vision for an attentionally demanding visual task located 30° below the dashboard (Summala, Nieminen, & Punto, 1996). (Importantly, however, consistent with what one might expect, under the same conditions, drivers are also very poor at noticing potential crash hazards, such as when a car in front of them suddenly slows down—thus, driving using only peripheral vision is very dangerous [Summala, Lamble, & Laakso, 1998].)
Open Access
Do Different Mental Models Influence Cybersecurity Behavior? Evaluations via Statistical Reasoning Performance
(2017-11-02) Brase, Gary L.; Vasserman, Eugene Y.; Hsu, William; gbrase; eyv; bhsu; Brase, Gary L.; Vasserman, Eugene Y.; Hsu, William
Cybersecurity research often describes people as understanding internet security in terms of metaphorical mental models (e.g., disease risk, physical security risk, or criminal behavior risk). However, little research has directly evaluated if this is an accurate or productive framework. To assess this question, two experiments asked participants to respond to a statistical reasoning task framed in one of four different contexts (cybersecurity, plus the above alternative models). Each context was also presented using either percentages or natural frequencies, and these tasks were followed by a behavioral likelihood rating. As in previous research, consistent use of natural frequencies promoted correct Bayesian reasoning. There was little indication, however, that any of the alternative mental models generated consistently better understanding or reasoning over the actual cybersecurity context. There was some evidence that different models had some effects on patterns of responses, including the behavioral likelihood ratings, but these effects were small, as compared to the effect of the numerical format manipulation. This points to a need to improve the content of actual internet security warnings, rather than working to change the models users have of warnings.
Open Access
Trickle-Down Engagement: Maximizing Teacher and Student Engagement in First-Year Courses
(2017) Saucier, Donald; Miller, Stuart; saucier
While much research has examined the engagement of college students in the classroom, relatively little research has examined the engagement of their teachers. This session explores the possibility that enhancing the engagement of college teachers will “trickle down” to enhance the engagement (and learning) of their students. Presenters will explore the results of their research program investigating college teachers’ subjective experiences in teaching, the correlates of these experiences, and the outcomes these experiences have on students’ engagement and learning. The data supports the “trickle-down engagement” model, and suggests practical recommendations to improve the engagement of both college faculty and students in their shared courses.
Open Access
Impairing the useful field of view in natural scenes: Tunnel vision versus general interference
(2016-04-01) Ringer, R. V.; Throneburg, Z.; Johnson, A. P.; Kramer, A. F.; Loschky, Lester C.; loschky
A fundamental issue in visual attention is the relationship between the useful field of view (UFOV), the region of visual space where information is encoded within a single fixation, and eccentricity. A common assumption is that impairing attentional resources reduces the size of the UFOV (i. e., tunnel vision). However, most research has not accounted for eccentricity-dependent changes in spatial resolution, potentially conflating fixed visual properties with flexible changes in visual attention. Williams (1988, 1989) argued that foveal loads are necessary to reduce the size of the UFOV, producing tunnel vision. Without a foveal load, it is argued that the attentional decrement is constant across the visual field (i. e., general interference). However, other research asserts that auditory working memory (WM) loads produce tunnel vision. To date, foveal versus auditory WM loads have not been compared to determine if they differentially change the size of the UFOV. In two experiments, we tested the effects of a foveal (rotated L vs. T discrimination) task and an auditory WM (N-back) task on an extrafoveal (Gabor) discrimination task. Gabor patches were scaled for size and processing time to produce equal performance across the visual field under single-task conditions, thus removing the confound of eccentricity-dependent differences in visual sensitivity. The results showed that although both foveal and auditory loads reduced Gabor orientation sensitivity, only the foveal load interacted with retinal eccentricity to produce tunnel vision, clearly demonstrating task-specific changes to the form of the UFOV. This has theoretical implications for understanding the UFOV.
Open Access
I can't wait: Methods for measuring and moderating individual differences in impulsive choice
Peterson, J. R.; Hill, C. C.; Marshall, A. T.; Stuebing, S. L.; Kirkpatrick, Kimberly; kirkpatr
Open Access
Good fences make for good neighbors but bad science: a review of what improves Bayesian reasoning and why
Brase, Gary L.; Hill, W. T.; gbrase
Open Access
Income, personality, and subjective financial well-being: the role of gender in their genetic and environmental relationships
Zyphur, M. J.; Li, Wendong; Zhang, Z.; Arvey, R. D.; Barsky, A. P.; wendong
Open Access
Relative Gains, Losses, and Reference Points in Probabilistic Choice in Rats
Marshall, A. T.; Kirkpatrick, Kimberly; kirkpatr
Open Access
Differential Rearing Alters Forced Swim Test Behavior, Fluoxetine Efficacy, and Post-Test Weight Gain in Male Rats
(2015-07-08) Arndt, D. L.; Peterson, C. J.; Cain, Mary E.; mecain
Open Access
What Would Jaws Do? The Tyranny of Film and the Relationship between Gaze and Higher-Level Narrative Film Comprehension
(2015-11-25) Loschky, Lester C.; Larson, Adam M.; Magliano, Joseph P.; Smith, Tim J; loschky
Open Access
Mechanisms of impulsive choice: I. Individual differences in interval timing and reward processing
(2015-05-18) Marshall, Andrew T.; Smith, Aaron P.; Kirkpatrick, Kimberly; kirkpatr
Impulsive choice behavior incorporates the psychological mechanisms involved in the processing of the anticipated magnitude and delay until reward. The goal of the present experiment was to determine whether individual differences in such processes related to individual differences in impulsive choice behavior. Two groups of rats (Delay Group and Magnitude Group) were initially exposed to an impulsive choice task with choices between smaller-sooner (SS) and larger-later (LL) rewards. The Delay Group was subsequently exposed to a temporal discrimination task followed by a progressive interval task, whereas the Magnitude Group was exposed to a reward magnitude sensitivity task followed by a progressive ratio task. Inter-task correlations revealed that the rats in the Delay Group that made more self-controlled (LL) choices also displayed lower standard deviations in the temporal bisection task and greater delay tolerance in the progressive interval task. Impulsive choice behavior in the Magnitude Group did not display any substantial correlations with the reward magnitude sensitivity and progressive ratio tasks. The results indicate the importance of core timing processes in impulsive choice behavior, and encourage further research examining the effects of changes in core timing processes on impulsive choice.
Open Access
Linking attentional processes and conceptual problem solving: visual cues facilitate the automaticity of extracting relevant information from diagrams
(2014-09-29) Rouinfar, Amy; Agra, Elise; Larson, Adam M.; Rebello, N. Sanjay; Loschky, Lester C.; srebello; loschky
This study investigated links between visual attention processes and conceptual problem solving. This was done by overlaying visual cues on conceptual physics problem diagrams to direct participants’ attention to relevant areas to facilitate problem solving. Participants (N = 80) individually worked through four problem sets, each containing a diagram, while their eye movements were recorded. Each diagram contained regions that were relevant to solving the problem correctly and separate regions related to common incorrect responses. Problem sets contained an initial problem, six isomorphic training problems, and a transfer problem. The cued condition saw visual cues overlaid on the training problems. Participants’ verbal responses were used to determine their accuracy. This study produced two major findings. First, short duration visual cues which draw attention to solution-relevant information and aid in the organizing and integrating of it, facilitate both immediate problem solving and generalization of that ability to new problems. Thus, visual cues can facilitate re-representing a problem and overcoming impasse, enabling a correct solution. Importantly, these cueing effects on problem solving did not involve the solvers’ attention necessarily embodying the solution to the problem, but were instead caused by solvers attending to and integrating relevant information in the problems into a solution path. Second, this study demonstrates that when such cues are used across multiple problems, solvers can automatize the extraction of problem-relevant information extraction. These results suggest that low-level attentional selection processes provide a necessary gateway for relevant information to be used in problem solving, but are generally not sufficient for correct problem solving. Instead, factors that lead a solver to an impasse and to organize and integrate problem information also greatly facilitate arriving at correct solutions.
Open Access
A threatening exchange: gender and life history strategy predict perceptions and reasoning about sexual harassment
(2015-01-01) Dillon, Haley Moss; Adair, Lora E.; Brase, Gary L.; gbrase
Sexual harassment is a serious societal issue, with extensive economic and psychological consequences, yet it is also an ill-defined construct fundamentally defined in terms of subjective perception. The current work was designed to examine the ways in which individual differences between people are systematically related to different perceptions of sexual harassment scenarios, as well as reasoning about those harassment situations. Participants (N = 460) read several possible harassment scenarios and rated how uncomfortable they would find them. They then also evaluated a quid pro quo sexual harassment situation in terms of their interpretation of it as a threat or a social exchange and completed a deductive reasoning task about the same situation. Females and individuals with slow life history strategies were more uncomfortable with potential harassment situations and were more likely to interpret the quid pro quo scenario as a threat. Further, interpreting the scenario as a threat was associated with poorer performance on the deductive logic task, compared to those who interpreted the scenario as a social exchange.
Open Access
Blur detection is unaffected by cognitive load
(2014-03-14) Loschky, Lester C.; Ringer, Ryan V.; Johnson, Aaron P.; Larson, Adam M.; Neider, Mark; Kramer, Arthur F.; loschky
Blur detection is affected by retinal eccentricity, but is it also affected by attentional resources? Research showing effects of selective attention on acuity and contrast sensitivity suggests that allocating attention should increase blur detection. However, research showing that blur affects selection of saccade targets suggests that blur detection may be pre-attentive. To investigate this question, we carried out experiments in which viewers detected blur in real-world scenes under varying levels of cognitive load manipulated by the N-back task. We used adaptive threshold estimation to measure blur detection thresholds at 0°, 3°, 6°, and 9° eccentricity. Participants carried out blur detection as a single task, a single task with to-be-ignored letters, or an N-back task with four levels of cognitive load (0, 1, 2, or 3-back). In Experiment 1, blur was presented gaze-contingently for occasional single eye fixations while participants viewed scenes in preparation for an easy picture recognition memory task, and the N-back stimuli were presented auditorily. The results for three participants showed a large effect of retinal eccentricity on blur thresholds, significant effects of N-back level on N-back performance, scene recognition memory, and gaze dispersion, but no effect of N-back level on blur thresholds. In Experiment 2, we replicated Experiment 1 but presented the images tachistoscopically for 200 ms (half with, half without blur), to determine whether gaze-contingent blur presentation in Experiment 1 had produced attentional capture by blur onset during a fixation, thus eliminating any effect of cognitive load on blur detection. The results with three new participants replicated those of Experiment 1, indicating that the use of gaze-contingent blur presentation could not explain the lack of effect of cognitive load on blur detection. Thus, apparently blur detection in real-world scene images is unaffected by attentional resources, as manipulated by the cognitive load produced by the N-back task.
Open Access
Sex differences in the inference and perception of causal relations within a video game
(2014-08-22) Young, Michael E.; michaelyoung
The learning of immediate causation within a dynamic environment was examined. Participants encountered seven decision points in which they needed to choose, which of three possible candidates was the cause of explosions in the environment. Each candidate was firing a weapon at random every few seconds, but only one of them produced an immediate effect. Some participants showed little learning, but most demonstrated increases in accuracy across time. On average, men showed higher accuracy and shorter latencies that were not explained by differences in self-reported prior video game experience. This result suggests that prior reports of sex differences in causal choice in the game are not specific to situations involving delayed or probabilistic causal relations.
Open Access
Don’t forget about us! Students’ perspectives
(2014-02-20) Jackson, Alexander T.; Parker, Kelsey N.; Waples, Christopher J.; atjacks
Open Access
A test of the automaticity assumption of compliance tactics: discouraging undergraduate binge drinking by appealing to consistency and reciprocity
(2014-06-18) Conner, Amy E.; Miller, Megan M.; Brannon, Laura A.; amccabe; lbrannon
The mindfulness of compliance with requests making use of the commitment/consistency or the reciprocity principle was investigated. Participants (N = 129) received a foot-in-the-door (FITD) request (commitment/consistency application), a door-in-the-face (DITF) request (reciprocity application), or no request. Next, participants read either a weak or neutral message about the importance of moderate alcohol consumption then reported the likelihood of not drinking excessively for one week (target request). When accompanied by a weak message, the target request elicited less compliance if preceded by the DITF or FITD requests than by no initial request, suggesting compliance tactics sometimes increase thoughtfulness.