According to the action-specific perception account, perception is a function of optical information and the perceiver's ability to perform the intended action. While most of the evidence for the action-specific perception account is on spatial perception, in the current experiments we examined similar effects in the perception of speed. Tennis players reproduced the time the ball traveled from the feeder machine to when they hit...

Two factors increase the motivation to adhere to a goal: goal commitment and lack of goal progress. When people ask about commitment, focusing on what they have accomplished (to date) signals to them high commitment and increases motivation. Conversely, when commitment is certain and people ask about goal progress, focusing on what they have yet to accomplish (to go) signals to them lack of progress...

Visual perception and emotion are traditionally considered separate domains of study. In this article, however, we review research showing them to be less separable than usually assumed. In fact, emotions routinely affect how and what we see. Fear, for example, can affect low‐level visual processes, sad moods can alter susceptibility to visual illusions, and goal‐directed desires can change the apparent size of goal‐relevant objects. In...

When locomoting in a physically challenging environment, the body draws upon available energy reserves to accommodate increased metabolic demand. Ingested glucose supplements the body's energy resources, whereas non-caloric sweetener does not. Two experiments demonstrate that participants who had consumed a glucose-containing drink perceived the slant of a hill to be less steep than did participants who had consumed a drink containing non-caloric sweetener. The glucose...

Perceiving egocentric distance is not only a function of the optical variables to which it relates, but also a function of people's current physiological potential to perform intended actions. In a set of experiments, we showed that, as the effort associated with walking increases, perceived distance increases if the perceiver intends to walk the extent, but not if the perceiver intends to throw. Conversely, as...

The purposes of this project were to determine mental training-induced strength gains (without performing physical exercises) in the little finger abductor as well as in the elbow flexor muscles, which are frequently used during daily living, and to quantify cortical signals that mediate maximal voluntary contractions (MVCs) of the two muscle groups. Thirty young, healthy volunteers participated in the study. The first group (N=8) was...

Fantasy realization theory states that when people contrast their fantasies about a desired future with reflections on present reality, a necessity to act is induced that leads to the activation and use of relevant expectations. Strong goal commitment arises in light of favorable expectations, and weak goal commitment arises in light of unfavorable expectations. To the contrary, when people only fantasize about a desired future...

The hypothesis tested in this article was motivated, in part, by the nonlinear dynamic model introduced in Losada (1999) and advanced in Losada and Heaphy (2004) and herein (Fredrickson & Losada, 2005). This model has since been called into question (Brown, Sokal, & Friedman, 2013). Losada has chosen not to defend his nonlinear dynamic model in light of the Brown et al. critique. Fredrickson’s (2013)...

Connectivity, the control parameter in a nonlinear dynamics model of team performance is mathematically linked to the ratio of positivity to negativity (P/N) in team interaction. By knowing the P/N ratio it is possible to run the nonlinear dynamics model that will portray what types of dynamics are possible for a team. These dynamics are of three types: point attractor, limit cycle, and complexor (complex...

Summary Fittingly, one of the hottest topics at a recent meeting in New York during a terrorism alert was how fear makes its way through the human brain and guides attention--even without the aid of the conscious mind.   Helmuth, L. (2003). Fear and trembling in the amygdala. Science, 300(5619), 586-569.DOI: 10.1126/science.300.5619.568