Social Cognitive Neuroscience of Person Perception: A Selective Review Focused on the Event-Related Brain Potential

This compelling volume provides a broad and accessible overview of the emerging field of social neuroscience. Showcasing an array of cutting-edge research programs, leading investigators present new approaches to the study of how the brain influences social behavior, and vice versa. The contributors discuss the theoretical advantages of taking a social neuroscience perspective and analyze what their findings reveal about core social psychological phenomena. Essential topics include emotion, motivation, attitudes, person perception, stereotyping and prejudice, and interpersonal relationships.https://scholarworks.wm.edu/asbookchapters/1045/thumbnail.jp

Person Perception

The complexities of the brain and nervous system make neuroscience an inherently interdisciplinary pursuit, one that comprises disparate basic, clinical, and applied disciplines. Behavioral neuroscientists approach the brain and nervous system as instruments of sensation and response; cognitive neuroscientists view the same systems as a solitary computer with a focus on representations and processes. The Oxford Handbook of Social Neuroscience marks the emergence of a third broad perspective in this field. Social neuroscience emphasizes the functions that emerge through the coaction and interaction of conspecifics, the neural mechanisms that underlie these functions, and the commonality and differences across social species and superorganismal structures. With an emphasis on the neural, hormonal, cellular, and genetic mechanisms underlying social behavior, social neuroscience places emphasis on the associations and influences between social and biological levels of organization. This complex interdisciplinary perspective demands theoretical, methodological, statistical, and inferential rigor to effectively integrate basic, clinical, and applied perspectives on the nervous system and brain.https://scholarworks.wm.edu/asbookchapters/1042/thumbnail.jp

Effects of Group Size on Arousal Elicited From Viewing a Violent Stimulus

56 leavesThe Purpose of the present study was to assess the extent to which the physiological and cognitive effects of viewing violent media were mediated by the presence of other people. It was hypothesized that individuals who watched a violent film clip by themselves would exhibit greater physiological arousal, and would rate the film clip as more violent, than subjects who watched the same film clip in groups, and than subjects who watched a nonviolent film clip. A volunteer sample of 150 undergraduate women were assigned to one of six film viewing conditions, depending on whether they watched the violent or the nonviolent film clip, and on whether they watched the film clip alone or with two or four other persons. Physiological arousal was determined by measuring subjects' heart rate and blood pressure during viewing of the film clips. After viewing the film clips, each subject rated the films on six different cognitive dimensions. Results indicated that group size did not affect film ratings, or systolic or diastolic blood pressure, but a significant difference in heart rate between baseline and peak film viewing was obtained with subjects who watched the violent film clip alone. The findings of this study suggest a possible mediating effect on heart rate of viewing violent media in the presence of other people

Effects of Violent Video Game Exposure on Aggressive Behavior, Aggressive thought Accessibility, and Aggressive Affect among Adults with and without Autism Spectrum Disorder

Recent mass shootings have prompted the idea among some members of the public that exposure to violent video games can have a pronounced effect on individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Empirical evidence for or against this claim currently is absent. To address this issue, adults with and without ASD were assigned to play a violent or nonviolent version of a customized first-person shooter video game, after which responses on three aggression-related outcome variables (aggressive behavior, aggressive thought accessibility, and aggressive affect) were assessed. Results showed strong evidence that adults with ASD are not differentially affected by acute exposure to violent video games compared to typically developing adults. Moreover, model comparisons showed modest evidence against any effect of violent game content whatsoever. Findings from the current experiment suggest that societal concerns over whether violent game exposure has a unique effect on adults with autism are not supported by evidence

Characterizing Switching and Congruency Effects In the Implicit Association Test as Reactive and Proactive Cognitive Control

Recent research has identified an important role for task switching, a cognitive control process often associated with executive functioning, in the Implicit Association Test (IAT). However, switching does not fully account for IAT effects, particularly when performance is scored using more recent d-score formulations. The current study sought to characterize multiple control processes involved in IAT performance through the use of event-related brain potentials (ERPs). Participants performed a race-evaluative IAT while ERPs were recorded. Behaviorally, participants experienced superadditive reaction time costs of incongruency and task switching, consistent with previous studies. The ERP showed a marked medial frontal negativity (MFN) 250–450 ms post-stimulus at midline fronto-central locations that were more negative for incongruent than congruent trials but more positive for switch than for no-switch trials, suggesting separable control processes are engaged by these two factors. Greater behavioral IAT bias was associated with both greater switch-related and congruency-related ERP activity. Findings are discussed in terms of the Dual Mechanisms of Control model of reactive and proactive cognitive control