Current literature maintains that success or failure in the performance of an action can modify perception of the objects of that action. The tests of that modification, however, may have measured memory rather than perception. To address this issue, the current experiment had observers throw a marble into various sized holes and assess their size through either a haptic or verbal measure. They respond either before the throw while the hole is visible (control condition), after the throw while the hole is visible (perception condition), or after the throw while the hole is not visible (memory condition). It was found that observers judged the hole size to be different depending on their throwing success only during the memory condition. This casts doubt on the conclusion of an action-specific perception account (Witt, 2011), and instead we propose an action-specific memory account.

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Attractive facial cues are preferred by most but, interestingly, people tend to find certain facial features more attractive depending on the context. This replication of Watkins and colleagues (2012) investigates how priming different social support conditions influences preferences for feminized or masculinized faces. In this study, 124 participants were recruited to complete an online survey where they were asked to imagine a time they felt socially isolated (low support condition) or a time they felt emotionally supported (high support condition). Participants were then shown 20 pairs of masculinized and feminized versions of the same face and were asked to rate attractiveness. Overall, feminine female faces and masculine male faces were significantly preferred. We did not replicate the finding that femininity is preferred under conditions of low social support. Future research is needed to make conclusions about how perceived social support influences our perception of faces.

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