Penalty kicks in soccer provide a unique scenario in which to examine human choice behavior under competitive conditions. Here, we report two studies examining the tendency for soccer kickers to select the goal side with the largest area to the left or right of the goalkeeper’s veridical midline, when the goalkeeper stands marginally off-center. In Study I participants viewed realistic images of a soccer goal and goalkeeper with instructions to choose the left or right side of the goalmouth to best score a goal. We systematically displaced the goalkeeper’s position along the goal line; and, to simulate changes in the kicker’s viewing position, we systematically displaced the lateral position of the goalmouth in each image. While, overall, participants tended to choose the left over the right goal side, this preference was modulated by the goalkeeper’s position relative to the center of the goal and jointly on the lateral position of the goalmouth relative to the participants’ body midline. In Study II we analyzed 100 penalty shots from men’s world cup shoot-outs between the years 1982 to 2018. Again, we found a small tendency for kickers to aim the ball to the left goal side, but with barely any modulating effect of changes in the goalkeeper’s position and no effect of changes in the kicker’s position. In contrast to earlier claims that a goalkeeper may benefit by standing marginally to the left or right of the center of the goal to influence the direction of the kicker’s shot, our findings suggest that this is probably not a good strategy in elite football competitions.

Stimulus discriminability is often assessed by comparisons of two successive stimuli: a fixed standard (St) and a varied comparison stimulus (Co). Hellström’s sensation weighting (SW) model describes the subjective difference between St and Co as a difference between two weighted compounds, each comprising a stimulus and its internal reference level (ReL). The presentation order of St and Co has two important effects: Relative overestimation of one stimulus is caused by perceptual time-order errors (TOEs), as well as by judgment biases. Also, sensitivity to changes in Co tends to differ between orders StCo and CoSt: the Type B effect. In three duration discrimination experiments, difference limens (DLs) were estimated by an adaptive staircase method. The SW model was adapted for modeling of DLs generated with this method. In Experiments 1 and 2, St durations were 100, 215, 464, and 1,000 ms in separate blocks. TOEs and Type B effects were assessed with univariate and multivariate analyses, and were well accounted for by the SW model, suggesting that the two effects are closely related, as this model predicts. With short St durations, lower DLs were found with the order CoSt than with StCo, challenging alternative models. In Experiment 3, St durations of 100 and 215 ms, or 464 and 1,000 ms, were intermixed within a block. From the SW model this was predicted to shift the ReL for the first-presented interval, thereby also shifting the TOE. This prediction was confirmed, strengthening the SW model’s account of the comparison of stimulus magnitudes.

Accurate assessment of people’s preferences for different outdoor lighting applications is increasingly considered important in the development of new urban environments. Here a new method of random environmental walking is proposed to complement current methods of assessing urban lighting applications, such as self-report questionnaires. The procedure involves participants repeatedly walking between different lighting applications by random selection of a lighting application and preferred choice or by random selection of a lighting application alone. In this manner, participants are exposed to all lighting applications of interest more than once and participants’ preferences for the different lighting applications are reflected in the number of times they walk to each lighting application. On the basis of an initial simulation study, to explore the feasibility of this approach, a comprehensive field test was undertaken. The field test included random environmental walking and collection of participants’ subjective ratings of perceived pleasantness (PP), perceived quality, perceived strength, and perceived flicker of four lighting applications. The results indicate that random environmental walking can reveal participants’ preferences for different lighting applications that, in the present study, conformed to participants’ ratings of PP and perceived quality of the lighting applications. As a complement to subjectively stated environmental preferences, random environmental walking has the potential to expose behavioral preferences for different lighting applications.

Bayesian methods of data analysis are increasingly being adopted in psy-chology and across the social sciences. Yet, attempts to teach Bayesian dataanalysis to the psychology students in Lund has met with many challenges.In this talk, I shall lay out the current progression of statistics teaching fromfirst year undergraduate to master level. Recent attempts to introduce Bayesianmethods of data analysis include a day lab, increased emphasis on the soft-ware program R, and proposed changes to the course literature. The aim is toprovide the fundamental tools for the students to progress, and open discus-sion about the feasibility of teaching Bayesian data analysis to the students.

Researchers examining self-esteem functioning typically consider self-esteem either an affective or competence related trait. However, to capture more precisely the role of self-esteem in behavior we need to view self-esteem both as something people hold and as something they strive for, and determine the relation between these aspects. In the present study the consequences of the dynamic interplay between basic self-esteem and competence related self-esteem for people's ambition when receiving positive and negative feedback were examined (N = 40). The results indicate that differences in basic self-esteem determine whether competence as a source of self-esteem entails realistic or unrealistic ambition strategies. Overall, the results suggest that the relation between self-esteem and competence is hierarchical and asymmetrical, such that competence may enhance a good sense of self-esteem but contribute little if basic self-esteem is impoverished. The present view of self-esteem provides a novel framework for further understanding of self-esteem functioning.

Despite the importance of both response probability and response time for testing models of choice, there is a dearth of chronometric studies examining systematic asymmetries that occur over time- and space-orders in the method of paired comparisons. In this study, systematic asymmetries in discriminating the magnitude of paired visual stimuli are examined by way of log odds ratios of binary responses as well as by signed response speed. Hierarchical Bayesian modeling is used to map response probabilities and response speed onto constituent psychological process, and processing capacity is also assessed using response time distribution hazard functions. The findings include characteristic order effects that change systematically in magnitude and direction with changes in the magnitude and separation of the stimuli. After Hellström (1979, 2000), sensation weighting (SW) model analyses show that such order effects are reflected in the weighted accumulation of noisy information about the difference between stimulus values over time, and interindividual differences in weightings asymmetries are related to the relative processing capacity of participants. An account of SW based on the use of reference level information and maximization of signal-to-noise ratios is posited, which finds support from theoretically driven analyses of behavioral data.

Contingent self-esteem, where one‟s self-value is staked on success and competence, is a particularly vulnerable disposition with impact on well-being. This study compared physiological and behavio ...

Together with reaction time (RT), the force with which people respond to stimuli can provide important clues about cognitive and affective processes. We discuss some of the issues surrounding the accurate measurement and interpretation of response force, and present a response key by which response force can be measured regularly and unobtrusively in RT research. The advantage of the response key described is that it operates like a standard response key of the type used regularly in classic RT experiments. The construction of the response key is described in detail and its potential assessed by way of an experiment examining response force in a simple reaction task to visual stimuli of increasing brightness and size.

Research indicates that people who have a low basic self-esteem and pursue success and competence in order to validate the self often exceed their limits. They tend to drive themselves hard to the extent that they risk their own health when striving to compensate an impoverished fundamental self-love. This vulnerable cognitive-motivational structure, labeled competence based self-esteem, is associated with wellbeing in general and with burnout in particular. The aim of the present study was to investigate experimentally the effects of Competence based self-esteem (CBSE; Johnson & Blom, 2007) by comparing high and low scorers on the scale regarding different indicators of physiological reactivity in a performance situation. On the basis of current theoretical accounts it follows that high scorers would exhibit more reactivity than low scorers.Physiological reactivity was measured by three indices of blood pressure and a non-intrusive assessment of response force, indicating momentary exertion, measured by way of a force sensor installed in the computer mouse. As a complementary index of reactivity each individual’s perceived arousal was assessed. The participants were 61 undergraduate students extracted from a pool of 220 students who had responded to a questionnaire with the CBSE scale.The results showed that high as compared to low scorers in CBSE scale exhibited significantly stronger physiological reactivity and strain/effort indicated by higher general blood pressure and more forceful responses, particularly in the first phase of the performance session. In addition, high scorers reported more perceived frustration, tension and anxiety than low scorers. Generally, the results indicate that individuals with high CBSE, when expected to perform well, strive harder with more tense and frustrated feelings than those with low CBSE. These results are in line with previous research and coincide well with the theoretical formulations behind the CBSE measure. They also suggest that CBSE has behavioral consequences with relevance for work related stress and illness. Further research will address the role of environmental stress factors for CBSE structure, which promises to shed new light on important aspects of occupational health.

OBJECTIVE:An excessive cardiovascular response to acute stress is a probable risk factor for cardiovascular (CV) disease. Such reactivity is usually assessed from the CV response to laboratory stressors. However, if it is a risk factor, correlated responses must occur in real life.DESIGN:In the present study, we investigated the relationship between the heart rate (HR) response to five laboratory stressors and HR reactivity in the field.MEASURES:HR variation, the response to a real life stressor (public speaking), and the increase in HR with periods of self-reported tense arousal. Ambulatory HR, activity and posture were measured continuously over a 7-hr period.RESULTS:The HR increase to laboratory stressors did not relate to HR variation consistently, but it did relate to the other two field measures.CONCLUSION:The results suggested that a tendency to increased HR reactivity may be a risk factor for cardiovascular disease when combined with exposure to stress.

Contingent self-esteem built on achievements and competence on a basis of impoverished fundamental self-love is labeled Competence-Based Self-Esteem (CBSE). Individuals with this cognitive-motivati ...