Browsing by Author "Garcia-Marques, Teresa"
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- Asking simultaneously about truth and familiarity may disrupt truth effectsPublication . Garcia-Marques, Teresa; Silva, Rita Rocha da; Mello, Joana José deAbstract: Tell me something that sounds familiar and I will believe it to be true. This is a statement that we should believe because it summarizes a well-documented and empirically supported effect: the illusion of truth effect (see Dechêne, Stahl, Hansen, & Wänke, 2010 for a review). The fact is we are more likely to believe in a statement if we have been previously exposed to it (e.g., Bacon, 1979; Hasher, Goldstein, & Toppino, 1977). Repetition increases truth-value, generating the illusion that repeated statements are more valid than information we never heard or read before. A general assumption of the explanations of the truth effect is that the subjective experience of processing a familiar statement is interpreted as informing about the validity of the statement (see Dechêne et al., 2010). This implies that a process of misattribution underlies repetition’s effect on judgments of truth (e.g., Bornstein & D’Agostino, 1994; Mandler, Nakamura, & Van Zandt, 1987; Schwarz & Clore, 1983). In this paper we present an experiment that tests such misattribution process by making more or less explicit the real source of the feeling of familiarity with the statements. In this way we test whether illusions of truth decrease when it is clear (vs. unclear) that familiarity is due to previous exposure.
- Avaliação da familiaridade e valência de palavras concretas e abstractas em língua portuguesaPublication . Garcia-Marques, TeresaUma lista de 213 palavras concretas e de 216 palavras abstractas em língua portuguesa foram avaliadas relativamente à sua familiaridade e valência percebidas (positividade-negatividade), por uma amostra de estudantes universitários do curso de psicologia. As médias, desvios padrões e intervalos de confiança de 95%, são apresentados em tabelas ordenadas para uma ou outra das dimensões avaliadas.
- Back to basics: Socially facilitated situated cognitionPublication . Fonseca, Ricardo Jorge Rodrigues Moita da; Garcia-Marques, TeresaA widely ignored finding in social facilitation suggests that the mere presence of others increases the “spreading out” of one’s thoughts (Allport, 1920). Here, we revisit this finding and expand upon it using a situated cognition perspective. Experiment 1 approached the spreading-out-of-thought effect using the same free-association task as Allport. Results replicated and extended previous findings. Compared to an alone condition, co-action and mere presence activated more associations, being that these associations are more context-related and more distant in the target word associative network. Assuming that this spreading-out-of-thought effect arises from an increased salience of context-related processing, we tested this hypothesis using the Framed-Line Test paradigm in Experiment 2. Results showed that, as expected, co-action increased accuracy of estimation judgments that required incorporation of contextual information in processing. These results support and extend Allport’s view that presence of others broadens our thoughts. We discuss this idea, suggesting that social contexts may prompt cognition to be more situated.
- Buy three but get only two: The smallest effect in a 2 × 2 ANOVA is always uninterpretablePublication . Garcia-Marques, Leonel; Garcia-Marques, Teresa; Brauer, MarkusLoftus (Memory & Cognition 6:312-319, 1978) distinguished between interpretable and uninterpretable interactions. Uninterpretable interactions are ambiguous, because they may be due to two additive main effects (no interaction) and a nonlinear relationship between the (latent) outcome variable and its indicator. Interpretable interactions can only be due to the presence of a true interactive effect in the outcome variable, regardless of the relationship that it establishes with its indicator. In the present article, we first show that same problem can arise when an unmeasured mediator has a nonlinear effect on the measured outcome variable. Then we integrate Loftus's arguments with a seemingly contradictory approach to interactions suggested by Rosnow and Rosenthal (Psychological Bulletin 105:143-146, 1989). We show that entire data patterns, not just interaction effects alone, produce interpretable or noninterpretable interactions. Next, we show that the same problem of interpretability can apply to main effects. Lastly, we give concrete advice on what researchers can do to generate data patterns that provide unambiguous evidence for hypothesized interactions.
- Challenge and threat motivation : Effects on superficial and elaborative information processingPublication . Fonseca, Ricardo Jorge Rodrigues Moita da; Blascovich, James; Garcia-Marques, TeresaThis paper integrates the motivational states of challenge and threat within a dual processing perspective. Previous research has demonstrated that individuals experience a challenge state when individuals have sufficient resources to cope with the demands of a task (Blascovich eta, 1993). Because the experience of resource availability has been shown to be associated with superficial processing (Garcia-Marques and Mackie, 2007), we tested the hypothesis that challenge is associated with superficial processing in two persuasion experiments. Experiment 1 revealed that inducing attitudes of participants in a challenge state was not sensitive to the quality of arguments presented. Experiment 2 demonstrated that the effect occurs even when task engagement, manipulated by the presence (vs. the absence) of a task observer (Blascovich et al., 1993), is high. The implications of these results for the biopsychosocial model model and the cognitive and motivational literature are discussed.
- Cognition and native-language grammar: The organizational role of adjective–noun word order in information representationPublication . Percy, Elise J.; Sherman, Steven J.; Garcia-Marques, Leonel; Mata, André; Garcia-Marques, TeresaIn the present research, we investigated the influence of native-language adjective–noun word order on category accessibility for nouns and adjectives by comparing Portuguese speakers (in whose language nouns precede adjectives) with English speakers (in whose language adjectives precede nouns). In two studies, we presented participants with different numbers of verbal or pictorial stimuli, and subsequently they answered questions about noun- and adjective-conditioned frequencies. The results demonstrated a primacy effect of nativelanguage word order. Specifically, although both populations showed a speed advantage for noun-conditioned questions, this tendency was significantly stronger for Portuguese than for American participants. We discuss the important role of native-language syntax rules for the categorization and representation of information.
- A Cognitive toolbox for persuasion. Perceived diagnosticity and persuasibility bias of persuasive featuresPublication . Garcia-Marques, Teresa; Loureiro, FilipePersuasive features such as argument quality, source expertise, support, affect, consensus, source likability, and source attractiveness are linked to mental rules that vary in their reliability in supporting the persuasive process. We address these features as cognitive tools available to support judgments, investigating their self-other perceived diagnosticity and persuasibility, and using self-other differences as an index of perceived bias. Results show that participants explicitly consider argument quality, source expertise, and support (number of arguments) as diagnostic of the validity of a claim. Such diagnosticity predicted perceived persuasibility, and self-other differences linked non-diagnostic features to bias. We further discuss the relevance of these findings for a more comprehensive understanding of the cognitive toolbox that supports persuasive influences.
- Continuação do FIM – Normas de valência e familiaridade das imagens do Ficheiro de Imagens MulticategoriaisPublication . Prada, Marília; Cunha, Cátia; Garcia-Marques, Teresa; Rodrigues, DavidNeste estudo introduzimos uma extensão do Ficheiro de Imagens Multicategoriais (FIM1, Prada & Garcia-Marques, 2006) em 280 imagens. Apresentamos, assim, dados normativos destas novas imagens em termos de valência, aferida através da média das respostas em duas dimensões contínuas referenciadas em 9 pontos, “Mau/Bom” e “Gosto Pouco/Gosto Muito”. Estas foram também avaliadas relativamente à sua familiaridade subjectiva, através da resposta a uma escala definida por “Pouco Familiar/Muito Familiar”. Cada imagem foi avaliada por uma amostra mínima de 20 estudantes, sendo sistematizadas as respectivas avaliações e tempos de resposta a cada escala (i.e., médias, desvios- -padrão e intervalos de confiança a 95%).
- Deontic signs increase control monitoring: Evidence from a modified traffic flanker taskPublication . Garcia-Marques, Teresa; Figueira, Pedro; Fernandes, Alexandre; Martins, JoãoDeontic norms are expected to impose individuals’ control over their behavior. In this paper, we address such norms presented in trafc signs and test their infuence over executive control functions. For Experiment 1, we develop a trafc fanker task in which the typical neutral arrows are replaced with trafc prohibition/obligation signs. Experiment 2 isolated the deontic aspect of the signs using simple arrows on red, blue, and green backgrounds and either primed them to be interpreted as trafc signs or as elements of a gaming console controller. Results in both studies show evidence of controlling context interferences more efciently when dealing with deontic (trafc) signs than with simple arrows (Experiment 1) or with similar perceptive targets when primed with a deontic context than with a gaming context (Experiment 2). In both studies, obligation/blue signs mitigate fanker efects less than prohibition/red signs. Stimuli color afects the alertness of the cognitive system, with the color red being, by itself, a cue for increased control. Based on temporal analysis, we further discuss these results as evidence of an increase in proactive control that aims to prevent the occurrence of undesirable infuence.
- Depression and the susceptibility to anchoring biasPublication . Silva, Diogo; Garcia-Marques, TeresaAbstract: Are depressive individuals more susceptible to anchoring effects? Does this susceptibility depend upon the affective nature of the event? Does individuals’ tendency to ruminative thinking have a role in these effects? We approach these questions by having participants (N=146) in a study perform an anchoring task (see Mussweiler & Strack, 2001) with neutral, negative, and depressive events, and subsequently indicate their level of depressive symptoms, via the Patient Health Questionnaire and levels of rumination via the Ruminative Response Scale. Results show anchoring effects to be stronger for neutral events than negative or depressive events. Both depression and rumination interfere positively with anchoring in such that the higher the levels of depression and rumination the higher the susceptibility to anchors. Both effects were shown to occur independently and not to be reliably moderated by the neutral, negative, or depressive nature of the events.