Effects Of Salience Research Articles

Lottery preference, short-sale constraint, and the salience effect: Evidence from China

This paper documents the significant and robust salience theory (ST) effect in China, which differs from the findings in the literature. First, the upside-ST effect from stocks with salient upsides is stronger than the downside-ST effect from stocks with salient downsides; the opposite pattern is documented in the US market. We demonstrate that this pattern is due to strong lottery preference and short-sale constraint in China, where investors are prone to engage in salient thinking when they bet on lottery stocks; meanwhile, short-sale constraint prevents rational investors from correcting salience-induced mispricing. Second, the salience effect remains strong in big stocks and high institutional ownership stocks. Our findings are consistent with the existing evidence that fund managers cater to fund investors' lottery preferences to hold lottery stocks. Our study provides new insights into the sources of the salience effect in China, especially salience's interaction with investor behaviors and the market's institutional characteristics.

Is the uncertain self good at detecting lies? The influence of personal uncertainty on deception detection

AbstractFive experiments (total number of judging participants = 1309, four different kinds of stimulus materials with a total of 464 messages, total number of judgements = 19,634) investigated the influence of personal uncertainty on the process of lie detection in social relationships. Building on and extending basic assumptions of uncertainty management models, we reasoned that uncertainty about themselves motivates people to evaluate the quality of their relationships. A crucial aspect of the quality of relationships with other people is the truthfulness with which they communicate verbally with you and anyone else. We proposed that if these assumptions are valid, reminding people of their personal uncertainties should lead them to use valid verbal cues in veracity judgements more. This enhanced usage of valid verbal cues should result in better accuracy in deception detection. An internal meta‐analysis of the five experiments reveals only a small, not significant, overall effect of uncertainty salience on detection accuracy with larger effect sizes for experiments conducted in the laboratory than for those conducted online. Hence, if personal uncertainty plays a role in the process of deception detection, it seems to be subject to moderators such as methodological or motivational factors.

Exploring the Existential Implications of COVID-19 in Health Communication

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic provided an existential threat the world has rarely seen and forced Americans to make meaning in a world of uncertainty surrounding what most have taken for granted, being healthy. Reviewing data from several studies collected throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, this article uses COVID-19 as a case study to understand reasoning to follow (or not) the recommendations set forth by government agencies through understanding the effects of longitudinal death salience (i.e., long-term awareness of death). The Terror Management Health Model (TMHM) argues that death is a key component to the condition of human behavior to elongate life. If the TMHM is correct, then Americans should have widely followed government recommendations, but instead violence and a polarized America ensued. Implications for health communication and the TMHM are discussed, providing a path forward for health communication and existential psychology scholars.

Is Humor a Meaning Making Process? Investigating the Effects of Absurd Humor and Mortality Salience on Meaning in Life, Moral Identity, Belongingness, and Belief in a Just World

Both mortality salience and absurd humor have been found to elicit fluid compensation - the automatic process of strengthening unrelated beliefs in response to a meaning threat. Previous research has suggested that perceiving absurd humor to be funny decreases people's tendency to fluid compensate, suggesting that humor is a meaning-making process. However, these results may have been confounded by mortality salience effects. Furthermore, few studies have investigated the effects of absurd humor and mortality salience on multiple beliefs. In the current study, we aimed to conceptually replicate previous research on the fluid compensatory effects of absurd humor and mortality salience under more stringent conditions and in response to a wider variety of beliefs. Participants (N = 590) recruited via MTurk were randomly assigned to a reading condition and thereafter completed a series of measures of meaning in life, moral identity, belongingness, and belief in a just world. Participants found humor in each reading condition and did not fluid compensate, suggesting that humor is a meaning-making process. Implications and directions for meaning making and humor research are discussed.

Comparing collocations in translated and learner language

Abstract This paper compares use of collocations by Italian learners writing in and translating into English, conceptualising the two tasks as different modes of constrained language production and adopting Halverson’s (2017) revised Gravitational Pull Hypothesis as a theoretical model. A particular focus is placed on identifying a method for comparing datasets containing translations and essays, assembled opportunistically and varying in size and structure. The study shows that lexical association scores for dependency-defined word pairs are significantly higher in translations than essays. A qualitative analysis of a subset of collocations shared and unique to either mode shows that the former set features more collocations with direct cross-linguistic links (connectivity), and that the source/first language seems to affect both modes similarly. We tentatively conclude that second/target language salience effects are more visible in translation than second language use, while connectivity and source language salience affect both modes of bilingual processing similarly, regardless of the mediation variable.

Higher judgements of learning for emotional words: processing fluency or memory beliefs?

ABSTRACT Previous research has shown that emotionally-valenced words are given higher judgements of learning (JOLs) than are neutral words. The current study examined potential explanations for this emotional salience effect on JOLs. Experiment 1 replicated the basic emotionality/JOL effect. In Experiments 2A and 2B, we used pre-study JOLs and assessed memory beliefs qualitatively, finding that, on average, participants believed that positive and negative words were more memorable than neutral words. Experiment 3 utilised a lexical decision task, resulting in lower reaction times (RTs) for positive words than for neutral words, but equivalent RTs for negative and neutral words, suggesting that processing fluency may partially account for higher JOLs for positive words, but not for negative words. Finally, we conducted a series of moderation analyses in Experiment 4 which assessed the relative contributions of fluency and beliefs to JOLs by measuring both factors in the same participants, showing that RTs made no significant contribution to JOLs for either positive or negative words. Our findings suggest that although positive words may be more fluently processed than neutral words, memory beliefs are the primary factor underlying higher JOLs for both positive and negative words.

Neural responses to facial attractiveness: Event-related potentials differentiate between salience and valence effects

We examined the neural correlates of facial attractiveness by presenting pictures of male or female faces (neutral expression) with low/intermediate/high attractiveness to 48 male or female participants while recording their electroencephalogram (EEG). Subjective attractiveness ratings were used to determine the 10% highest, 10% middlemost, and 10% lowest rated faces for each individual participant to allow for high contrast comparisons. These were then split into preferred and dispreferred gender categories. ERP components P1, N1, P2, N2, early posterior negativity (EPN), P300 and late positive potential (LPP) (up until 3000 ms post-stimulus), and the face specific N170 were analysed. A salience effect (attractive/unattractive > intermediate) in an early LPP interval (450–850 ms) and a long-lasting valence related effect (attractive > unattractive) in a late LPP interval (1000–3000 ms) were elicited by the preferred gender faces but not by the dispreferred gender faces. Multi-variate pattern analysis (MVPA)-classifications on whole-brain single-trial EEG patterns further confirmed these salience and valence effects. It is concluded that, facial attractiveness elicits neural responses that are indicative of valenced experiences, but only if these faces are considered relevant. These experiences take time to develop and last well beyond the interval that is commonly explored.

Awareness and salience in language contact The case of Asturian Spanish

Awareness of a sociolinguistic variable and linguistic behavior are intricately connected, such that the former can influence speakers’ use of particular linguistic variants. As a result, exploring awareness and salience as part of linguistic variation is crucial to fully understanding the linguistic choices that speakers make in interaction and the social meaning of the variants they employ. In this article, I investigate how patterns in the production and perception of Asturian features might be explained by examining their cognitive and social salience, and the different levels of sociolinguistic awareness observed in the communities in which Spanish and Asturian are in contact. After an analysis of metalinguistic discourse on public social media, the article explores the effect of cognitive salience and explicit awareness on the perceptions of the Asturian gender morphemes /-u/ and /-es/, as well as how the availability of Asturian “ye” to index interactional stances relates to the speakers’ awareness of this sociolinguistic variant, its symbolism, and their control over its use. I show that different dimensions of salience and awareness affect the indexical fields of these contact variants, allowing some features to become markers of Asturian identity and social status, to adopt particular styles, and to be employed as stance-marking units based on the speakers’ interactional needs.

Event-Related Potentials Reveal the Impact of Conflict Strength in a Numerical Stroop Paradigm.

Numerical cognition provides an opportunity to study the underlying processes of selective attention to numerical information in the face of conflicting, non-numerical, information of different magnitudes. For instance, in the numerical Stroop paradigm, participants are asked to judge pairs of Arabic digits whose physical size can either be congruent (e.g., 3 vs. 5) or incongruent (e.g., 3 vs. 5) with numerical value. Congruency effects when deciding which of the two digits is numerically larger are thought to reflect the inhibition of the irrelevant physical size. However, few studies have investigated the impact of the salience of the irrelevant non-numerical information on these congruency effects and their neural substrates. EEG was recorded in 32 adults during a numerical Stroop task with two levels of salience (low, high) of the irrelevant size dimension. At the behavioral level, we observed larger congruency effects in the high salience condition (i.e., when the difference in size between the two digits is larger). At the neural level, at centro-parietal electrodes, we replicated previous studies showing a main effect of congruency on event-related potential (ERP) amplitudes between 280 and 370 ms post-stimulus, as well as a main effect of salience around 200 ms post-stimulus. Crucially, congruency and salience interacted both between 230 and 250 ms (P2), and between 290 and 340 ms (P3). These results provide support for separate processes underlying the increase in congruency effect, which can be attributed to higher demands in both the inhibition of the irrelevant dimension, and the attention to the relevant numerical information.

Examining the effect of mortality salience on preference for anthropomorphic products.

Research has shown that anthropomorphic products can compensate for the lack of belongingness and control. These findings suggest that anthropomorphic products may also protect against mortality salience, which has been shown in numerous research studies to be closely related to both belongingness and control motives. In two high-powered experiments, the present research aimed to investigate the effect of mortality salience on preference for anthropomorphic products and test the moderating role of three relevant factors, namely, belongingness, self-esteem, and attachment style. In the first study, we conducted a 2 (mortality salience: yes vs. no) x 2 (anthropomorphism: yes vs. no) between-subjects factorial design experiment. In the second study, we conducted a 2 (mortality salience: yes, no) x 2 (anthropomorphism: yes, no) mixed design experiment, in which we manipulated mortality salience between subjects and anthropomorphism within subjects. We found no evidence for the effect of mortality salience on preference for anthropomorphic products, nor for the moderating roles of belongingness, attachment style, or self-esteem. However, we found that anthropomorphism had a large, positive main effect on attitudes toward the product only when a non-anthropomorphic comparison was available. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Testing for Salience Effects in Choices under Risk

Abstract We construct and run an experiment to test the most basic choice effect predicted by Salience Theory. Subjects allocate wealth between a risky and a safe investment. While we vary an apparent payoff ratio to influence salience, treatments have economically equivalent consequences. Most other theories of behavior then predict zero effect. Our experimental findings are strongly consistent with the behavioral implication of a continuous version of Salience Theory. We provide a novel structural estimate on the strength of salience. In our setting, increasing the relative payoff contrast by one percent is equivalent to an increased odds ratio by about 0.4 percent.

The relevance of familiarity in the context of self-related information processing.

Humans are inclined to preferentially process self-related content, referred to as the "self-bias." Different paradigms have been used to study this effect. However, not all paradigms included a familiar other condition (but rather an unfamiliar other condition), needed to differentiate self-specific effects from the impact of familiarity. The primary goal of our study was to test the suitability for studying the self-bias of two paradigms that provide robust measures of salience effects-that is, the Repetition Blindness (RB) effect and the Emotional Stroop (ES) interference-while addressing the familiarity confound. We further explored whether self-bias effects were related to autism symptomatology, as a reduced self-bias in autism has been reported in previous research. In an online procedure, 82 adults performed an RB task and an ES task in a counterbalanced order, while being presented with both self- and familiar other-related stimuli. Results of both frequentist and Bayesian analyses did not provide evidence in favour of a specific self-bias on either task: we found no significant modulation of the RB effect, nor of the ES interference, for the own versus a close other's name. Moreover, no link with autism symptomatology was found. Tackling a crucial shortcoming from earlier studies, our investigation raises awareness on the importance of accounting for familiarity when investigating self-related processing.

ABB, a salient prototype of collocate–ideophone constructions in Mandarin Chinese

Abstract ABB words in Chinese, e.g., hēi-qīqī ‘pitch black’, have been studied for a long time. Most traditional studies analyze these words through derivational rules involving empty suffixes. However, this is problematic, as they are better seen as compounds involving a prosaic A and an ideophonic BB part. By treating ABB as a schema sanctioned by collocate–ideophonic constructions, it is possible to investigate other similar patterns. A corpus study (more than 5,000 tokens) revealed that on the level of schemas, ABB truly acts as a prototype of such constructions, but that it is far from the only pattern to be identified. A second corpus-based study on the level of exemplars showed there are different pockets of salience and non-uniformity in the data from four angles: cue validity, frequency, dispersion, and constructional preference. This paper provides evidence that the traditional ABB narrative needs to be complemented with usage-based data, and grapple with the lexical salience effects this brings along for words involving iconicity.

Science communication in the media and human mobility during the COVID-19 pandemic: a time series and content analysis

ObjectivesThe relationship between human mobility and nature of science (NOS) salience in the UK news media was examined. Study designThis is a mixed-method study. MethodsA time series NOS salience data set was established from the content analysis of 1520 news articles related to non-pharmaceutical interventions of COVID-19. Data were taken from articles published between November 2021 and February 2022, which correlates with period of the change from pandemic to endemic status. Vector autoregressive model fitting with human mobility took place. ResultsThe findings suggest that it was not the number of COVID-19 news articles nor the actual number of cases/deaths, but the specific NOS content that was associated with mobility change during the pandemic. Data indicate a Granger causal negative direction (P < 0.1) for the effect of the NOS salience represented in the news media on mobility in parks, as well as the effect of scientific practice, scientific knowledge and professional activities communicated in news media on recreational activities and grocery shopping. NOS salience was not associated with the mobility for transit, work or residential locations (P > 0.1). ConclusionsThe findings of the study suggest that the ways in which the news media discuss epidemics can influence changes in human mobility. It is therefore essential that public health communicators emphasise the basis of scientific evidence to eliminate potential media bias in health and science communication for the promotion of public health policy. The present study approach, which combines time series and content analysis and uses an interdisciplinary lens from science communication, could also be adopted to other interdisciplinary health-related topics.

Metacognitive Illusions: A Positivity Effect in Judgments of Learning for Older but Not Younger Adults

The positivity effect for metacognitive judgments (judgments of learning, JOLs) of emotional words in recognition memory was shown in older adults, in contrast to younger adults, who typically displayed the emotional salience effect. This is compatible with the socioemotional selection theory, which suggests the presence of a positive stimulus bias in older adults' cognitive processes. This study examined whether the positivity effect and age-related differences could be extended to a picture study to determine whether the positivity effect in older adults is robust in the metacognitive domain. Younger and older adults studied negative, positive, and neutral pictures, followed by JOLs and then a recognition test that asked participants to judge whether the picture was shown in the studying stage or not. Age-related differences were found not only in recognition memory performance for emotional pictures but also in JOLs and their accuracy. Younger adults showed an emotional salience effect for both memory performance and JOLs. Older adults' JOLs showed a positivity effect, but their actual memory performance was influenced by emotion, and this inconsistency between metacognitive judgments and memory performance is a metacognitive illusion. These findings support the cross-material replicability of a positivity bias in older adults in the metacognitive domain and suggest that we should be cautioned about the detrimental effects of this metacognitive illusion in older adults. It illustrates an age difference in the effect of emotion on individual metacognitive monitoring ability.

Webcare salience and consumer engagement: The moderating effects of webcare valence, conversational human voice and response time

ABSTRACT Management of online reviews holds strategic significance for brands, especially in the hospitality sector, as more and more prospective consumers read reviews for brand evaluation and brand engagement. Contrary to most studies that examine the effects of webcare among reviewers, this study examines the effects of webcare on consumer brand engagement among review readers. Further, rather than focusing on a single review or a management response to a single review, it focuses on the perceived webcare efforts of a firm as a response to multiple reviews taken together by introducing a new concept, webcare salience, defined as the degree to which webcare is seen in a review set by the review readers or observers. Through a series of experiments in the tourism context, it examines underexplored effects of webcare salience on consumer brand engagement and, particularly, how other webcare variables, namely webcare valence, conversational human voice and response time, moderate such effects. This research triggers a new line of scholarly enquiry that takes into account the idea of review set and review readers’ perspectives.

Influence of Armature Reaction on Electromagnetic Performance and Pole Shaping Effect in Consequent Pole Pm Machines

Consequent pole permanent magnet (CPPM) machines can improve the ratio of average torque to PM volume, but suffer from more serious armature reactions. In this paper, the variations of electromagnetic performance of surface-mounted PM (SPM), conventional CPPM machines, and pole-shaped CPPM machines with armature reaction at currents up to 5 times overload are analyzed and compared. The flux densities, flux linkages, back EMFs, inductances, torque characteristics, and demagnetization withstand capabilities are analyzed by the finite element method (FEM) and frozen permeability method. It is validated that the third order harmonics in inductances for CPPM machines tend to be reduced as current rises since the saturation in iron pole is prone to reducing the saliency effect. But the armature reaction tends to result in the increase of torque ripple components for all the machines. It is also found that the overall torque ripple of asymmetric pole-shaped machine tends to increase significantly under overload conditions. On the contrary, the symmetrical pole-shaped machine can maintain a relatively stable torque ripple under overload conditions which is similar to the SPM counterpart. Additionally, due to the large armature reactions, CPPM machines suffer from weaker demagnetization withstand capabilities and weaker overload capabilities than their SPM counterparts. Four CPPM prototypes with and without pole shaping are tested to confirm the FEM analysis.

How sport teaches values? The specific ability of intense bodily commitment to enhance norm adherence

How sport teaches values? The specific ability of intense bodily commitment to enhance norm adherence

L2 English learners’ verb lexicalization of motion events

AbstractThis study examines the effects of L2 proficiency and manner salience on English learners’ verb lexicalization of spontaneous motion events. Three proficiency groups of L1 Korean learners of L2 English were asked to describe spontaneous motion situations, and their use of verbs was compared to that of native English speakers. Results indicate that L2 learners’ verb lexicalization was heavily influenced by the typological patterns of their native language, but the development of target-like lexicalization patterns occurred even though it plateaued at a certain acquisitional phase. Moreover, it was found that the degree of adopting target-like lexicalization patterns varied by manner-of-motion types (i.e., high-salience manner such asswimversus low-salience manner such aswalk) in all three learner groups, implying that the inherent salience of manner has an impact on L2 lexicalization of spontaneous motion.

A new perspective on the role of physical salience in visual search: Graded effect of salience on infants' attention.

We tested 6- and 8-month-old White and non-White infants (N = 53 total, 28 girls) from Northern California in a visual search task to determine whether a unique item in an otherwise homogeneous display (a singleton) attracts attention because it is a unique singleton and "pops out" in a categorical manner, or whether attention instead varies in a graded manner on the basis of quantitative differences in physical salience. Infants viewed arrays of four or six items; one item was a singleton and the other items were identical distractors (e.g., a single cookie and three identical toy cars). At both ages, infants looked to the singletons first more often, were faster to look at singletons, and looked longer at singletons. However, when a computational model was used to quantify the relative salience of the singleton in each display-which varied widely among the different singleton-distractor combinations-we found a strong, graded effect of physical salience on attention and no evidence that singleton status per se influenced attention. In addition, consistent with other research on attention in infancy, the effect of salience was stronger for 6-month-old infants than for 8-month-old infants. Taken together, these results show that attention-getting and attention-holding in infancy vary continuously with quantitative variations in physical salience rather than depending in a categorical manner on whether an item is unique. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).