In visual search for a conjunction it is much more difficult to search for the conjunction of 2 colors or 2 orientations than for Color x Orientation or Color x Shape conjunctions. The result is not limited to particular colors or shapes. Two colors cannot occupy the same spatial location in Color x Color searches. However, Experiments 6 and 7 show that Color x Shape searches remain efficient even if the color and shape are spatially separated. Our guided search model suggests that in searches for Color x Shape, a parallel color module can guide attention toward the correct color, whereas the shape module guides attention toward the correct shape. Together these 2 sources of guidance lead attention to the target. However, if a target is red and green among red-blue and green-blue distractors, it is not possible to guide search independently toward red items and green items or away from all blue items.

The COVID-19 pandemic has increased negative emotions and decreased positive emotions globally. Left unchecked, these emotional changes might have a wide array of adverse impacts. To reduce negative emotions and increase positive emotions, we tested the effectiveness of reappraisal, an emotion-regulation strategy that modifies how one thinks about a situation. Participants from 87 countries and regions (n = 21,644) were randomly assigned to one of two brief reappraisal interventions (reconstrual or repurposing) or one of two control conditions (active or passive). Results revealed that both reappraisal interventions (vesus both control conditions) consistently reduced negative emotions and increased positive emotions across different measures. Reconstrual and repurposing interventions had similar effects. Importantly, planned exploratory analyses indicated that reappraisal interventions did not reduce intentions to practice preventive health behaviours. The findings demonstrate the viability of creating scalable, low-cost interventions for use around the world.

In a series of experiments psychophysical techniques were used to study the relation between binocular rivalry and motion perception. An initial series of experiments confirmed that motion enhances the predominance of an eye during rivalry, although the direction of motion does not matter. The presence of an annulus of motion immediately surrounding one eye's rival target greatly enhances dominance of that target, but the influence of the annulus progressively decreases as the separation between disk and annulus increased. Opponent directions of motion in disk and annulus yield greater dominance than when dots in the disk and annulus moved in identical directions. In a second experiment that two eyes were adapted to orthogonal directions of motion, generating strong, distinctively different monocular motion aftereffects (MAEs). Even though the two eyes view physically identical random-motion displays following differential adaptation, binocular rivalry of the discrepant MAEs can occur. Finally, using a stimulus replacement technique to measure detectability of translational and rotational motion, it was found that both types of motion were readily detected during periods of dominance but went undetected during periods of suppression. Taken together, these results bear on the process responsible for rivalry and its neural locus relative to the analysis of different types of motion.

These results suggest that cognitive testing with the CBB in alternate settings can provide valid cognitive data comparable to data obtained during individually supervised testing.

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