This book offers a comparative analysis of value and identity changes in several post-Communist countries. In light of the tremendous economic, social and political changes in former communist states, the authors compare the values, attitudes and identities of different generations and cultural groups. Based on extensive empirical data, using quantitative and qualitative methods to study complex social identities, this book examines how intergenerational value and identity changes are linked to socio-economic and political development. Topics include the rise of nationalist sentiments, identity formation of ethnic and religious groups and minorities, youth identity formation and intergenerational value conflicts

The key to the upliftment of the Adivasi community is a deep understanding of their culture, psychological resources and cognitive strengths. Ecology, Culture and Human Development: Lessons for Adivasi Education presents a comparative analysis of the cultural and cognitive dimensions of various communities in Canada, Ghana, China and India, and seeks answers from this analysis for Adivasi education. It debunks the myths of low intelligence and inferior cognitive capacity of the Adivasi community, and emphasizes the remarkable performance of Adivasi children when assessed in terms of their ecological and cultural contexts. Extensively illustrated and containing substantive data on all relevant aspects of human development, this book is a much-desired addition to the literature on this crucial aspect of social development in India. It is a comprehensive resource that aims to contribute substantially towards mitigating the travails of the Adivasi community and ensuring their social empowerment.

The general trend in Afghanistan is clear-cut: the overall security situation has consistently deteriorated since 2009, worsening dramatically since 2014. However, in the provinces of Afghanistan adjacent to Central Asia, the security situation has deteriorated even further than in Afghanistan as a whole. This report considers the range of options available to the Central Asian neighbors of Afghanistan (Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan) in responding to this growing threat, both unilaterally and in their bilateral engagement with actors in Afghanistan. Furthermore, it considers how decisionmaking processes in Central Asia will be affected by future developments in Afghanistan by assessing options and likely outcomes under a set of security scenarios in Afghanistan itself.

This textbook on Instructional Design for Learning is a must for all education and teaching students and specialists. It provides a comprehensive overview about the theoretical foundations of the various models of Instructional Design and Technology from its very beginning to the most recent approaches. It elaborates Instructional Design (ID) as a science of educational planning. The book expands on this general understanding of ID and presents an up-to-date perspective on the theories and models for the creation of detailed and precise blueprints for effective instruction. It integrates different theoretical aspects and practical approaches, such as conceptual ID models, technology-based ID, and research-based ID. In doing so, this book takes a multi-perspective view on the questions that are central for professional ID: How to analyze the relevant characteristics of the learner and the environment? How to create precise goals and adequate instruments of assessment? How to design classroom and technology-supported learning environments? How to ensure effective teaching and learning by employing formative and summative evaluation? Furthermore, this book presents empirical findings on the processes that enable effective instructional designing. Finally, this book demonstrates two different fields of application by addressing ID for teaching and learning at secondary schools and colleges, as well as for higher education.

Most books and articles still treat leadership and ethics as related though separate phenomena. This edited volume is an exception to that rule, and explicitly treats leadership and ethics as a single domain. Clearly, ethics is an aspect of leadership, and not a distinct approach that exists alongside other approaches to leadership. This holds especially true for the for the military, as it is one of the few organizations that can legitimately use violence. Military leaders have to deal with personnel who have either used or experienced violence. This intertwinement of leadership and violence separates military leadership from leadership in other professions. Even in a time that leadership is increasingly questioned, it is still good leadership that keeps soldiers from crossing the thin line between legitimate force and excessive violence

This report presents the results of an ESRC-funded research project that examined the behavioural and attitudinal impacts of the English plastic bag charge that was introduced in October 2015. The project used a mixed-methods longitudinal approach, and included a national survey, a diary-interview study, and supermarket observation study. Overall, the research has shown that the English plastic bag charge has made a strong and positive impact on people’s behaviours and attitudes. The research found that the charge was eff ective at breaking old habits, and that it became more popular as people adapted to the policy. Evidence was also found that the charge increased environmental awareness and the acceptability of other environmental policies. The success of the plastic bag charge in eff ectively changing plastic bag use and increasing support for other charges to reduce waste suggests that similar policies could also be successfully implemented, such as a deposit return scheme on plastic bottles or a charge on disposable coff ee cups.

Background and aims. This research reported here presents findings from an evaluation of the development and implementation of the Healthy Community Challenge Fund (otherwise known as the ‘Healthy Towns’ programme). A key aim of the research has been to inform the development of future environmental and systems‐based ‘whole town’ approaches to obesity prevention. The overall aim of the Healthy Towns programme was to pilot and stimulate novel ‘whole town’ approaches that tackle the ‘obesogenic’ environment in order to reduce obesity, with a particular focus on improving diet and increasing physical activity. Through a competitive tender process, nine towns were selected that represented urban areas across England ranging from small market towns to areas of large cities. The fund provided £30 million over the period 2008‐2011, divided amongst the nine towns. The amounts awarded ranged from £900,000 to £4.85 million. Towns were instructed to be innovative and were given freedom to develop a locally‐specific programme of interventions. This report supplements local process and impact evaluations undertaken by each town (not reported here) by taking an overall view of the programme’s development and implementation. Our evaluation therefore addressed the following research questions: 1. What kinds of interventions were delivered across the Healthy Towns programme? 2. Were environmental and infrastructural interventions equitably delivered? 3. How was the Healthy Towns programme theorised and translated into practice? 4. How was evidence used in the selection and design of interventions? 5. What are the barriers and facilitators to the implementation of a systems approach to obesity prevention?

Crisis is a burning issue; this is not a phenomenon, which can be conquered forever. Current approach to crisis is an optimized collaboration, which allows for manageable, measurable and predictable software development. Crisis is a new reality to live and work with. The current software development crisis dates back to the 1960s. The root cause of crisis is misbalance between resources and options. Understanding the nature of crisis helps to understand the reasons for the future crises.

This book is a navigator in lifecycle models, methodologies, principles and practices for predictable and efficient software development in crisis, i.e. under rapid requirement changes, resource deficit and other uncertainties. Therefore, the starting chapters suggest the major approaches to software development and their applicability in crisis. Further narration is case-based; it involves large-scale software implementations in different industries and knowledge transfer processes in IT education. The book suggests a set of principles that potentially marry the client’s and the developer’s views of the future software product in order to avoid or to mitigate the crisis.

The book will be helpful for students, postdocs, theorists and practitioners in software development. It suggests approved principles and practices of crisis management for software development.

The aging of the Russian population and the rapid shrinking of its labor force in coming decades will make the human capital each worker contributes increasingly vital for sustaining economic output and growth. While improvements in general education are necessary to build the foundation for a productive future labor force, a broad-based and effective system of adult education can provide second-chance opportunities for current workers to enhance their productivity and lengthen their working lives and for low-skilled immigrants to be integrated into the workforce. How well the Russian Federation addresses these multiple needs at and beyond the workplace will depend on how effective its adult education system is. This study targeting policymakers outlines the problems of Russia's growing skills gap, especially the shortage of higher-order cognitive and socio-emotional skills, and examines the current state of adult education.

The phenomenon of self-disclosure can be considered at different levels of scientific exploration being approached either from the socio-psychological viewpoint or from the individually determined personal perspective, where the subject of openness may serve as an individual with his personal potential in the field of social communications, and social groups or corporations as well. At the level of communicative dialogue and interpersonal relationships self-disclosure is manifestation of human potential capabilities and his readiness for open and trusting cooperation in society. In practical terms, handling these issues can be referred to as a social order from the part of the representatives of those professions where comfortable social communication appears to be an important factor of communicative competence and professionalism of the person.

Cognitive Control, Communication and Perception: Psychological and Neurobiological Aspects (CCCP 2014) workshop proceedings (Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia, December 4-6, 2014)

The book describes consequnces of culture in Russia.

The work was implemented as part of the Federal Dedicated Programme “Fostering Scientific and Academic Staff for Innovative Russia” for 2009-2013.

In this monograph, Anatoliy V. Kharkhurin presents the results of his empirical investigation into the impact of multilingual practice on an individual's creative potential. Until now, the relationship between these two activities has received little attention in the academic community. The book makes an attempt to resuscitate this theme and provides a solid theoretical framework supported by contemporary empirical research conducted in a variety of geographic, linguistic, and sociocultural locations. This study demonstrates that several factors - such as the multilinguals' age of language acquisition, proficiency in these languages and experience with cultural settings in which these languages were acquired - have a positive impact on selective attention and language mediated concept activation mechanisms. Together, these facilitate generative and innovative capacities of creative thinking. This book will be of great interest not only to scholars in the fields of multilingualism and creativity, but also to educators and all those interested in enhancing foreign language learning and fostering creativity.

Competition for resources is a fundamental characteristic of evolution. Auctions have been widely used to model competition of individuals for resources, and bidding behaviour plays a major role in social competition. Yet, how humans learn to bid efficiently remains an open question. We used model‐based neuroimaging to investigate the neural mechanisms of bidding behaviour under different types of competition. Twenty‐seven subjects (nine male) played a prototypical bidding game: a double action, with three “market” types, which differed in the number of competitors. We compared different computational learning models of bidding: directional learning models (DL), where the model bid is “nudged” depending on whether it was accepted or rejected, along with standard reinforcement learning models (RL). We found that DL fit the behaviour best and resulted in higher payoffs. We found the binary learning signal associated with DL to be represented by neural activity in the striatum distinctly posterior to a weaker reward prediction error signal. We posited that DL is an efficient heuristic for valuation when the action (bid) space is continuous. Indeed, we found that the posterior parietal cortex represents the continuous action space of the task, and the frontopolar prefrontal cortex distinguishes among conditions of social competition. Based on our findings, we proposed a conceptual model that accounts for a sequence of processes that are required to perform successful and flexible bidding under different types of competition.

The paper presents the results of two studies of intercultural relations in post-Soviet Georgia and Tajikistan. These countries have in common a sharp decline in cultural diversity as a result of wars and conflicts, and this model of intercultural relations on post-Soviet space was identified as a post-conflict model. The goal of this study was to evaluate three hypotheses of intercultural relations: multiculturalism, contact and integration (Berry, 2017) among majority members and the ethnic Russian minorities. We surveyed 312 Ethnic Russians and 298 Georgians in Georgia; 277 Ethnic Russians and 317 Tajiks in Tajikistan. The studies used scales from the MIRIPS questionnaire. To test the three hypotheses of intercultural relations we followed a Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) approach. The multiculturalism hypothesis found partial support in all four groups in Georgia and Tajikistan. The contact hypothesis received partial support in Tajiks and in Ethnic Russians in Georgia and was not supported among Ethnic Russians in Tajikistan and Georgians. The integration hypothesis was fully supported in Tajiks and Ethnic Russians in Georgia, partially supported among Ethnic Russians in Tajikistan and was not supported among Georgians. The results obtained in these two countries are discussed taking into consideration the sociocultural contexts and recent history of wars and conflicts.

Visual search (VS) for multiple targets is especially error prone. One of these errors is called subsequent search misses (SSM) and represents a decrease in accuracy at detecting a second target after a first target has been found. One of the possible explanations of SSM errors is working memory (WM) resource depletion. Three experiments investigated the role of WM in SSM errors using a dual task paradigm. The first experiment investigated the role of object WM using a classical color change detection task. In the second and the third experiments, a modified change detection task was applied, using shape as the relevant feature. The results of our study revealed no effect of additional WM task on second target detection in dual-target VS. To this end, SSM errors are not related to WM resource depletion. On the contrary, WM task performance was violated by dual-target VS as compared to single-target VS, when the targets in VS task were defined by the same feature used in the WM task.

Existing research shows that distribution of the speaker’s attention among event’s protagonists affects syntactic choice during sentence production. One of the debated issues concerns the extent of the attentional contribution to syntactic choice in languages that put stronger emphasis on word order arrangement rather than the choice of the overall syntactic frame. To address this, the current study used a sentence production task, in which Russian native speakers were asked to verbally describe visually perceived transitive events. Prior to describing the target event, a visual cue directed the participants’ attention to the location of either the agent or the patient of the subsequently presented visual event. In addition, we also manipulated event orientation (agent-left vs. agent-right) as another potential contributor to syntactic choice. The number of patient-initial sentences was the dependent variable compared between conditions. First, the obtained results replicated the effect of visual cueing on the word order in Russian language: more patient-initial sentences in patient cued condition. Second, we registered a novel effect of event orientation: Russian native speakers produced more patient-initial sentences after seeing events developing from right to left as opposed to left-to-right events. Our study provides new evidence about the role of the speaker’s attention and event orientation in syntactic choice in language with flexible word order.

We previously showed that people can discriminate multiple intermixed groups of objects based on "segmentability," large gaps between values in feature distributions forming several peaks. Here, we test whether such discrimination is based on local or global sampling. Two arrays of lines of various orientation (O) and length (L) were presented; both had identical feature distributions but opposite directions of O-L correlations. These sets consisted of either 14 lines near both meridians or 32 lines filling rectangular regions; participants had to determine boundary orientation between the sets with different O-L correlations. We found that displays with both O and L segmentable provide better discrimination than nonsegmentable ones and an advantage of 32-line sets. This suggests that the segmentation of spatially mixed objects is global sampling of lots of items based on full-scale feature statistics rather than local sampling near a potential boundary.

The visual system can represent multiple objects in a compressed form of ensemble summary statistics (such as object numerosity, mean, and feature variance/range). Yet the relationships between the different types of visual statistics remain relatively unclear. Here, we tested whether two summaries (mean and numerosity, or mean and range) are calculated independently from each other and in parallel. Our participants performed dual tasks requiring a report about two summaries in each trial, and single tasks requiring a report about one of the summaries. We estimated trial-by-trial correlations between the precision of reports as well as correlations across observers. Both analyses showed the absence of correlations between different types of ensemble statistics, suggesting their independence. We also found no decrement (except that related to the order of report explained by memory retrieval) in performance in dual compared to single tasks, which suggests that two statistics of one ensemble can be processed in parallel.

Past research done in Russian samples demonstrated similar correlations between expressive suppression and the Big Five traits to those found in the United States and in European countries. In Russia, expressive suppression showed a positive association with Conscientiousness and was not related to Agreeableness. Just like in other countries with western cultural values, expressive suppression of negative emotions showed an inverse correlation with psychological well-being, whereas the suppression of positive emotion was not related to well-being. In the present study, we replicated the classical experiment by J. Gross and R. Levenson in a Russian sample (N = 59), aiming to assess the effects of inhibiting positive and negative emotions. Emotions (amusement, sadness, and neutral state) were induced using validated video clips accompanied by an instruction to view normally or with expressive suppression. Under the expressive suppression condition Russians showed: (1) lower activity of cheek muscles, while the forehead muscles toughened under the expressive suppression of amusement and relaxed under the expressive suppression of sadness; (2) the intensity of target emotion did not change, while the expressive suppression of amusement enhanced the background negative emotions, and the expressive suppression of sadness enhanced background positive emotions; (3) the sympathetic activation of the electrodermal and cardiovascular systems did not change. Thus, unlike Americans, for Russians expressive suppression appears to be a typical strategy of emotional regulation that does not cause a decrease in amusement selfreports or additional activation of the sympathetic nervous system.

We address the question how people’s opinion and features of information interact in the process of indirect social influence. Implicit learning was considered as a mechanism for conformity in social perception. We carried out 2 experiments using a hidden covariation detection paradigm. In a learning phase, participants memorized a set of female photographs presented together with their attractiveness ratings. The ratings correlated with the hairstyle of the photographed women. The participants who did not consciously detect this correlation demonstrated a systematic bias toward the correlation when evaluating the new stimulus persons. Information about the source of the ratings in the learning phase (other people’s opinions or nonsocial sources) did not modulate learning. Learning was not observed when participants critically evaluated the ratings during the memorization phase. The study shows that (a) conformity may be based not only on reinforcement learning mechanism (as was previously suggested) but also on unsupervised implicit learning; (b) implicit learning occurs automatically irrespective of the context (social or not); and (c) a critical attitude toward learned material may prevent implicit learning from being manifested in a test phase. We conclude that indirect social influence may be affected by people’s opinion toward the provided information. The study contributes to both implicit learning and social perception research. 

In this study, we aimed to estimate the effect of phonological processing in the emergence of specific maths or combined maths and reading difficulties during the first year of schooling. We also estimated whether the high level of phonological processing could be a resource for coping with math difficulties. The study was conducted on a large sample of Russian first-graders (N=3296 pupils, mean age 7.3 years, 49% of them were girls). Pupils were tested twice, at the beginning and at the end of the first grade in their level of maths performance, reading performance, phonological processing, and number recognition skills. In each test, four groups of pupils were identified regarding their level of maths and reading performance: a group with mathematical difficulties only (MD), pupils with reading difficulties only (RD), pupils with both maths and reading difficulties (MDRD) and pupils without difficulties (TD). The probability to move into the MD group, the MDRD group and in the TD group was estimated for pupils regarding their group status at Time 1 and their level of phonological processing. Results revealed that at first grade, phonological processing did not correlate with specific maths difficulties, but associated with both maths and reading difficulties. At the same time, a high level of phonological processing may prevent typically developing pupils from moving into the MD group. Moreover, a high level of phonological processing increases the probability to move into the TD group for pupils who had specific maths difficulties at the start of schooling.

It is commonly believed that the visual system requires oculomotor information to perceive depth from binocular disparity. However, any effect of the oculomotor information on depth perception is too restricted to explain depth perception under natural viewing conditions. In this study, I describe a computational model that can recover depth from a stereo-pair of retinal images without using any oculomotor information. The model shows that, at least from a computational perspective, any oculomotor information is not necessary for perceiving depth from the stereo retinal images.

Psychological studies show the effect of mortality salience (MS) on attitudes and behavioral patterns in different spheres of social life, particularly, in intergroup relationships. This study examines the influence of MS on attitudes toward national outgroups. In line with terror management theory (TMT), previous studies indicate a contradictory impact of death-related thoughts. Reminders of death enhance unfavorable attitudes toward all national outgroups, however, MS reinforces the negative attitudes only toward unfriendly countries or toward those perceived as threatening. To shed light on the influence of MS, we conducted two experimental studies that were differentiated by MS manipulation and the specifics of the outgroups. In Study 1 we actualized the reminders of death through military news, whereas in Study 2 by the presentation of terrorism news (close and distant). In Study 1 (N = 180) we analyzed the impact of MS on attitudes toward Ukraine, Belarus, and Estonia. The results showed that MS mostly reinforced the unfavorable attitudes toward ‘unfriendly’ and ‘neutral’ countries. Study 2 (N = 242) focused on MS and attitudes toward Ukraine, Belarus, the USA, and China. The results indicated that MS enhanced negative attitudes toward Ukraine as an ‘unfriendly’ country. However, the close or distant terrorism-related content did not illustrate the specific influence on attitudes toward national outgroups.

Whether the motor cortex activation accompanying concrete verbs comprehension is necessary for verbs conceptual processing is still a hotly debated topic in the literature. Answering this question, we examined to what extent the more difficult access to verb semantics requires an additional engagement of cortical motor system in verb generation task. Using power suppression of MEG beta oscillations (15-30 Hz) as an index of sensorimotor activation, we presented to our participants the noun cues which either were strongly associated with a single verb and prompted the fast and effortless verb retrieval, or were weakly associated with multiple verbs and were more difficult to respond to. A whole-brain analysis of beta suppression revealed that the only cortical regions sensitive to the difficulty of semantic access were the higher order motor areas on the medial and lateral surfaces of the frontal lobe. This differential activation of cortical motor system accompanied effortful verb retrieval and preceded the preparation of vocal response for more than 500 milliseconds. Since the mid-frontal frontal brain areas are involved in maintaining abstract representations of actions during their initiating and planning, we argue that our finding supports the view that motor associations contribute to retrieval of verb semantics.

This paper investigates the characteristics of the affective component in the structural mere exposure effect (SMEE). Two approaches are considered – fluency attribution approach (FA) and affect as predictive efficiency approach (APE) – within a predictive coding framework. Using the artificial grammar learning and affective priming paradigms, we demonstrate that a violation of implicitly learned regularities elicits an automatic negative affective response. This result suggests that SMEE can be observed without any overtly evaluative judgment. Participants’ decisions on the grammaticality of stimuli did not change this pattern. We conclude that SMEE is based on the affective response to prediction errors made by the cognitive system and may include the fluency attribution process in the later stages of processing.

Expectations of people with high and low intelligence differ considerably. High intelligence is associated with several desirable social outcomes, while low intelligence is associated with low social status and poverty. We assumed that attributing high intelligence to a person could lead to a more positive evaluation of them and, as a result, less negative attitudes toward them. In the experimental study (N = 781) we investigated how levels of perceived intelligence impact the long-term stigmatization of dirty workers. The results show that perceived high intelligence of dirty workers decreases long-term stigmatization towards them, but these findings relate only to people performing moral dirty work. Implicit theories about intelligence were controlled as a covariate and had no significant effect. Results are discussed in terms of the positive effect of perceived high intelligence on everyday perception. Limitations and future directions are also discussed.

The human factor is always decisive in social development. The role of active behavior and above all economic behavior is obvious. However, there are some difficulties: the law regulates predominantly "external" behavior; psychology covers interests, motives, will, emotions.   This paper analyzes individuals’ interests and motives in economics. Coherence and contradictions of the labor interests are investigated on the basis of a survey made in several organizations. The rank of interests (economic, professional, career, group, corporate, territorial, and common civil) in the dependence of labor group type (shareholders, top managers, line managers, employees) is formed.  

This study tests the psychometrics of a Russian version of the Couple Motivation Questionnaire (CMQ), and analyzes the possible distinctions between the Russian and English versions of the instrument. We hypothesize that the adopted version of CMQ repeats the original structure, and a continuum of motivation in romantic relationships will be found as a result of the correlation analysis. We conducted a correlation study on an online sample of (N = 497) using CMQ, the Test of Existential Motivations in Interpersonal Relationships, the Dyadic Adjustment Scale and the Codependency Scale. The theoretical model, which was proposed in the original study (Blais et al., 1990), linked self-determination theory's motivational styles to adaptive relationship behaviors and the general quality of romantic relationships. The model was successfully confirmed for the Russian sample using a reverse translation and the psychometric testing of CMQ. The model revealed resistance to cultural influences, and the new instrument is suggested for studies of the motivational aspects of relationships using Russian samples.

According to the scientific literature on writing, poetry and prose have their own distinct characteristics. We suppose, therefore, that the value-motivational basis for being creatively active is specific and different for poetry and prose writers. On the basis of existing studies on individual values, motivation types and creative behavior, we build hypotheses about their interrelations, specifying the differences between poetry and prose writing. The research was an empirical correlational study using questionnaires for data gathering: the revised PVQ-R of Schwartz, the authors’ questionnaire to measure frequency of creative behavior and a questionnaire on the motivation of creative behavior developed on the basis of Deci and Ryan's CBI questionnaire. The sample includes 240 representatives of “little creativity”, those involved in the non-professional writing of poetry or prose during the previous year (2016). The results show that poets and prose writers have differences in values and their relations to specific creative behavior in micro-domains of literary creativity. We also found a positive relationship between specific motivation types and the main creative behavior. We identified the mediating role of autonomous motivation between values and creativity in the poets’ group. This research demonstrates that there is sense in the division of creativity into domains and micro-domains as there are differences in the values and motivation types related to creative activities in micro-domains. 

Recent geopolitical changes in Crimea initiated the process of massive identity transformation among ethnic majority and minority groups. Current study was aimed at examining the role of multiple identities and acculturation strategies in the psychological well-being of Crimean Tatar minority (N=80). The study revealed high motivation for ethno-cultural continuity among Crimean Tatars. The combination of ethnic, religious and place identities positively predicts both life-satisfaction and self-esteem. These combined identities also positively predict integration strategy and negatively assimilation strategy. Combined national and Russian ethno-linguistic identitiy positively predicts integration and assimilation strategies and negatively predicts separation strategy. The findings indicate the importance of taking historical, political, social context into account in the studies on minority issues.

This research investigates the relation of personality metatraits and negotiation styles, and the role of negotiation self-efficacy in it. This study was interviewed of Russians with negotiation background at the extractive industry (N=119). Participants were given Thomas-Kilmann questionnaire, CPM-Q personality questionnaire and negotiation self-efficacy questionnaire. It was found that some personality metatraits are significant and direct predictors of negotiation styles and, additionally, negotiation self-efficacy. Nevertheless, negotiation self-efficacy does not mediate the influence of personality metatraits on negotiation styles.

The leaky integrate and fire model of neural spiking has been used extensively to simulate saccadic responses in a variety of tasks from visual search to simple reaction times. Although it has been tested for its neural spiking accuracy and its spatial prediction of fixations in visual salience, it has not been well tested for its temporal accuracy. Saccade generation invariably results in a positively skewed distribution of saccadic reaction times over large numbers of samples, yet we show that the LIF algorithm tends to produce a distribution shifted to shorter fixations (in comparison with human data) in its classic implementation. Further, parameter optimization using a genetic algorithm and Nelder–Mead method does improve the fit of the resulting distribution, but is still unable to match temporal distributions of human responses in a simple visual search task. Further analysis revealed, that the LIF algorithm produces discrete reaction times instead of distributions. Aggregated over many pictures they may be treated as a distribution although the form of this distribution depends on the input images used to create it.

Approximately twenty years ago, Laurent Itti and Christof Koch created a model of saliency in visual attention in an attempt to recreate the work of biological pyramidal neurons by mimicking neurons with centre-surround receptive fields. The Saliency Model has launched many studies that contributed to the understanding of layers of vision and the sphere of visual attention. The aim of the current study is to improve this model by using an artificial neural network that generates saccades similar to how humans make saccadic eye movements. The proposed model uses a Leaky Integrate-and-Fire layer for temporal predictions, and replaces parallel feature maps with a deep learning neural network in order to create a generative model that is precise for both spatial and temporal predictions. Our deep neural network was able to predict eye movements based on unsupervised learning from raw image input, as well as supervised learning from fixation maps retrieved during an eye-tracking experiment conducted with 35 participants at later stages in order to train a 2D softmax layer. The results imply that it is possible to match the spatial and temporal distributions of the model to spatial and temporal human distributions.

Cognitive dissonance arises as a reaction to conflict appearing in choices between two equally attractive options. It leads to changes in the desirability of these options. The chosen option becomes more desirable whereas the rejected option is devalued. Despite cognitive dissonance being largely used by social psychologists to explain social conformity and preference reevaluation, little is known about the neural mechanisms of such choice-induced preference changes. In this study, we modulated the activity of the posterior medial frontal cortex (pMFC), which has been found to be involved in cognitive dissonance in neuroimaging studies. We influenced the activity of the pMFC before individual choices using both cathodal and anodal transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) during a revised version of Brehm's free-choice paradigm. Our results showed that cathodal tDCS over the pMFC significantly decreased the typical choice-induced preference change relative to a sham stimulation. On the contrary, no significant effect of anodal tDCS was observed. Our findings of the influence cathodal tDCS on preference re-evaluation highlight the central contribution of the pMFC in cognitive dissonance and provide evidence that pMFC plays a key role in the implementation of subsequent post-decision preference change.

This is a theoretical study. Theoretical understanding of a visual stimulus in a psychophysical experiment is critical for controlling the experiment and for interpreting its results. This fact encourages vision scientists to use “simple” visual stimuli. A triangle in a 3D scene is one of the simplest stimuli for studying 3D perception. In this study, we analyzed geometrical properties of a relation between the triangle and its retinal image using a computer algorithm. Based on the analysis, we discuss validity of results of past studies that used triangles as their visual stimuli.

This is an empirical study. The perception of a pair of contours in a retinal image cannot be understood simply by adding up the perceptions of the individual contours, especially when they form a perpendicular junction, or are parallel to one another. It is the relationship among the contours that determines what is perceived. Note that it is hard to actually compare the perception of such configurations quantitatively. We managed to do this by testing the perception of such configurations in three psychophysical experiments in which the perception was characterized by measuring the orientation threshold of a single contour. This threshold was estimated by using a modified Method of Constant Stimuli based on the assumption that contours forming a configuration are perceived individually, and that they are integrated linearly. This assumption made the quantitative comparison of the perceived configurations possible. We found that changes of the estimated threshold depended on the type of the configuration, specifically thresholds estimated from a perpendicular junction were substantially lower than thresholds estimated from a single contour or from a non-perpendicular junction. The lowest thresholds were observed when the threshold was estimated from a pair of parallel contours. These results suggest that the visual system is sensitive to perpendicular junctions and parallel contours in a retinal image.

The temporal dynamic characteristics of mood play an important role in various aspects of our lives including our psychological health and well-being. It is assumed that the individuals with high emotional intelligence (EI) are characterized by more positive and stable moods. However, most studies analyze how EI is related to emotional traits or momentary assessments of mood; there are almost no findings on EI relationships with mood dynamics. The present study fills this gap. Two research questions were asked. How mood dynamics characteristics are related to each other and to what extent are they independent? Which aspects of EI are related to particular characteristics of mood dynamics? Method. To collect data on mood dynamics, an experience sampling procedure was implemented. Twenty-six female participants reported their mood for two weeks, three times a day, using the EmoS-18 questionnaire. Their emotional intelligence was measured with the EmIn questionnaire. Mean mood scores calculated across all measurement points were regarded as static characteristics showing a mood background typical for the participant. Also, three dynamic characteristics of mood were calculated, namely variability, instability, and inertia. Results. Mood variability and instability were found to be very closely related to each other, measuring essentially the same construct. Inertia is relatively independent. EI was not related to mean mood scores which contradicts the results of other studies and can be explained by the use of the experience sampling procedure. EI was positively related to the inertia of a positive mood with high arousal and a negative mood with low arousal. In addition, a negative relationship between EI and the instability of tension was found. Most of the correlations were low. Further studies with higher statistical power are needed for more decisive conclusions. However, the results show that experience sampling provides new important insights on the role of EI in mood