Vertical attention bias for tops of objects and bottoms of scenes.

Past research demonstrated a top-salience bias in object identification, with random shapes appearing more similar when they share the same top versus the same bottom. This is consistent with tops of natural objects and lifeforms tending to be more informative locations of intentionality and functionality, leading observers to favor attending to tops. However, this bias may also reflect a generic downward vantage tendency that occurs with more informative interactive aspects of scenes typically lying below the horizon.

Children and adults exhibit a common vertical attention bias for object tops and scene bottoms.

Adults have a vertical attention bias (VAB) that directs their focus toward object tops and scene bottoms. This is consistent with focusing attention on the informative aspects and affordances of the environment, and generally favoring a downward gaze. The smaller size of children, combined with their relatively limited interactions with objects and scenes, could lead them to have diminished bias that only gradually develops.

The gleam-glum effect: /i:/ versus /λ/ phonemes generically carry emotional valence.

The gleam-glum effect is a novel sound symbolic finding that words with the /i:/-phoneme (like gleam) are perceived more positive emotionally than matched words with the /Λ/-phoneme (like glum). We provide data that not only confirm the effect but also are consistent with an explanation that /i:/ and /Λ/ articulation tend to co-occur with activation of positive versus negative emotional facial musculature respectively. Three studies eliminate selection bias by including all applicable English words from the English Lexicon Project (Balota et al.

Egocentric Temporal Order Bias Robust Across Manipulations of Cue Predictability and Sensory Modality.

The Egocentric Temporal Order (ETO) bias is the finding that self-initiated action-events are perceived as having occurred prior to simultaneous externally triggered events. Here, we test if the ETO bias is affected by predictability of the stimulus cue used to initiate a self-action or by the sensory modality of that cue. Without separating out the potential influence of the stimulus cue on the ETO bias, further investigations into the mechanisms underlying the bias are difficult to interpret.

Who hit the ball out? An egocentric temporal order bias.

Temporal order judgments can require integration of self-generated action events and external sensory information. We examined whether conscious experience is biased to perceive one's own action events to occur before simultaneous external events, such as deciding whether you or your opponent last touched a basketball heading out of bounds. Participants made temporal order judgments comparing their own touch to another participant's touch, a mechanical touch, or an auditory click.