Moral disgust is thought to be an emotion arising from perceptions of immorality as physically contaminating, in part based on experiments showing that participants are unwilling to contact immoral objects like a Nazi's armband. Here it is proposed that apparent contagiousness of immorality is driven by desire to avoid reputation harm by visibly associating with immorality. Hypothetical (Study 1) and behavioural (Study 2) evidence supported this account. Participants preferred to wear a Nazi armband under rather than over their clothing, even though this meant direct skin contact. The "under" preference was stronger with an audience. Participant reports revealed little contamination concern but strong reputation concern. Changing perspective, targets who touched but concealed the armband were not seen as contaminated or immoral (Study 3). If disgust reported towards immorality is not contaminating, it may not reflect activation of the full emotion of disgust. Instead, people may express disgust to communicate particular motives. Unlike anger, which can be seen as self-interested, disgust communicates a more principled, moral motivation. Studies 4 and 5 used scenarios to show that observers infer more moral motivation from an expression of disgust and more self-interested motivation from anger. Studies 6, 7 and 8 demonstrated that participants are more likely to choose to express disgust to show moral concern and anger to protest harm to one's self-interest. These findings offer a new perspective for understanding the role of disgust in morality: disgust is not expressed because people feel an internal state of disgust but because disgust effectively communicates morally motivated condemnation.

Power dictates the allocation of, and access to, valued resources. It is perhaps not surprising then that people have a 'will' or 'lust' for power (Nietzsche, 1924; Russel, 1938), and believe that power is exciting and powerlessness depressing (Mondillon et al., 2005). The Approach-Inhibition Theory of Power echoes this belief, suggesting that high power brings positive mood and low power negative mood (Keltner, Gruenfeld, & Anderson, 2003). However, empirical data on power and mood is mixed. Inducing feelings of power sometimes elevates mood (e.g., Galinsky, Gruenfeld, & Magee, 2003), but other times does not (e.g., Berdahl & Martorana, 2006), suggesting that the relationship between power and mood may be more complex than initially thought. The Situated Model of Power argues that the relationship between power and mood is dependent on the context (Guinote, 2007a). In this view, power attunes people to the current situation, elevating mood in positive contexts and depressing mood in negative contexts. This implies that power increases variability in mood between contexts of opposing valence (negative vs. positive; Guinote, 2007a), and is consistent with the fact that power increases variability in thought and behaviour (Guinote, Judd, & Brauer, 2002). Five studies, informed by the Approach-Inhibition (Keltner et al., 2003) and Situated (Guinote, 2007a) Models of Power, looked at the impact of high and low power on self-reports, and physiological indices, of mood at baseline and in contexts of differing valence (negative vs. positive). A meta-analysis revealed that across studies (N = 1046) high power elevated, and low power depressed mood at baseline/in neutral and in positive contexts. However, neither high nor low power predicted mood in negative contexts. Furthermore, high power increased, and low power decreased variability in mood across contexts (although the former effect was marginally significant). Results reconcile disparate findings and are discussed in relation to theoretical models of power.

This thesis sought to explore episodic memory, interference caused by similar events and its demands on hippocampal function by using different methodological and practical approaches in humans and rodents. Overall, this thesis focused on three aims, which included methodological approaches to testing episodic memory, using this approach to investigate cholinergic depletion of the hippocampus, and linking animal and human behavioural research. The recent development of spontaneous recognition tasks in rats to assess multiple trials consecutively in one testing session allow an opportunity to assess the role of contextual changes and interference in episodic memory. In a series of studies, it was shown that a new continuous trials apparatus can be used in behavioural as well as lesion studies to further explore the role of acetylcholine involved in episodic memory in rats without causing any proactive interference. Furthermore, the behavioural tasks in this thesis emphasise that context, which can take various forms, plays a profound role in segmenting memory of events. Whereas increasing the number of trials happening consecutively normally did not produce interference between events remembered, contextual representation within those trials was crucial. Chapters 2-7 demonstrated that depending on the context’s nature it enhances the segmentation of similar episodes and avoids interference, but it can also hinder recollection of events. Chapter 8 supplemented these findings by providing evidence in humans, where a clear deficit in recollection was found when a spatial change in a virtual environment was encountered, revealing a location updating effect. However, further validation of the human episodic memory task is necessary to make it a useful method in assessing different forms of hippocampal mechanisms involved in episodic memory.

Several approaches have been developed to help patients with partial visual field defects to cope with their visual loss, and the most effective are those that encourage the person to move their eyes more efficiently. This thesis sought to examine the efficacy of a multiplatform compensatory training called Durham Reading and Exploration (DREX) in the rehabilitation of these individuals. Overall, the thesis focuses on two primary aims which include establishing whether the DREX training app completed on either a computer or a touchscreen tablet can be an effective treatment for homonymous visual field defects (HVFDs) caused by brain injury, as well as validating the assessment tasks that have been incorporated into the app. The results from Studies 1 to 3 show that DREX training is clinically effective for HVFD rehabilitation, and the training effect in patients trained using a touchscreen tablet is equivalent to patients trained with a computer, with a meaningful improvement in the quality of life which remains stable over a period of three months. In Studies 4 to 6, the built-in assessments tasks are found to be reliable and valid and can be used confidently to monitor the training progression and outcomes. Study 7 explores the novel observation that DREX training is also beneficial for patients with other types of partial visual field defects like tunnel vision and central visual field loss, demonstrating that this training could potentially be offered to a wider low vision population. Finally, studies 8 and 9 explore whether the blurring of vision, a common comorbid visual impairment in patients with visual field defect, could affect the visual exploration performance and the outcomes of visual exploration training. From these results it is clear that blurring of vision did reduce the search efficacy, but searching behaviour can still be improved with the training. Taken together, the findings from this suite of studies indicate that DREX is an effective and inexpensive treatment for visual field defects in a variety of etiologies, however the comorbid impairments that could affect the rehabilitation should be identified to maximise efficacy of this treatment.

Mapping language functions in the brain is of profound theoretical and clinical interest. The aim of the current Ph.D. project was to develop an fMRI paradigm to assesses different language processes (i.e., phonological, semantic, sentence processing) and modalities (listening, reading, repetition) in a stimulus-driven manner, keeping non-linguistic task demands to a minimum. Cortical activations and functional connectivity patterns were largely in line with previous research, validating the suitability of the paradigm for localizing different language processes. The first empirical chapter of the thesis investigated sentence comprehension in listening and reading, which elicited largely overlapping activations for the two modalities and for semantic and syntactic integration in the left anterior temporal lobe (ATL). Functional connectivity of the left ATL with other parts of the cortical language network differed between the modalities and processes. The second empirical chapter explored individual differences in brain activity in relation to verbal ability. Results supported the notion of more extended as well as stronger activations during language processing in individuals with higher verbal ability, possibly reflecting enhanced processing. The third empirical chapter further investigated individual differences in brain activity, focusing on lateralization in activity as a fundamental principle of how language processing is functionally organized in the brain. Degrees of left-lateralization differed significantly between language processes and were positively related to behaviorally assessed language lateralization. Furthermore, the results provided new evidence supporting a positive relationship between left-lateralization and verbal ability. The thesis concludes with a discussion of the significance of the results with regard to general principles of brain functioning and outlines potential clinical implications.

Parental styles have a significant impact on children’s developmental outcomes. It could be argued that negative parenting characteristics, including strictness, neglect, control, punishment, and lack of support potentially impact child academic self-concept, behavioural problems as well as child’s cognitive abilities. The current thesis examines this question in Kurdish primary school children. This thesis comprises 6 chapters: Chapter 1 and 2 consist of an introduction and literature review about the topic. Chapter 3 reports study 1 which examines parenting styles and their relationship with academic self-concept and behavioural problems. This chapter also considers whether academic self-concept serves as a mediator in the relationship between parenting styles and behavioural problems. In support of previous studies, results indicate a vital role of parenting styles on children’s academic self-concept and behavioural problems among Kurdish children. The results also indicate that academic self-concept serves as a significant mediator in the relationship between parenting styles with prosocial behaviour and internalising problems. Chapter 4 reports study 2, which is an intervention study. This study tests the impact of Systematic Training for Effective Parenting (STEP) programme to improve parenting styles and decrease parental stress. After three months a follow-up study was carried out in order to examine the effectiveness of the STEP programme. It was found that the intervention was effective in promoting parenting styles and reducing the level of parental stress in Kurdish mothers. The follow-up study showed that the changes were sustained over a three months period. However, contrary to expectation, no significant statistical differences were found in academic self-concept and behavioural problems between children whose mothers attended STEP and others whose mothers did not attend. Chapter 5 reports study 3 in which the individual differences in executive functions based on the parental monitoring and hyperactivity expressed by children was investigated. Additionally, a moderating role of parental monitoring in the relationship between children’s executive function and hyperactivity was performed in this study. Results indicated that children subjected to poor parental monitoring and showing a high level of hyperactivity had difficulties in inhibitory control, accuracy, processing speed and task persistence compared with the matched sample. PROCESS analysis indicated a significant moderating role of parental monitoring in the association between accuracy, verbal inhibition and task persistence with hyperactivity. The last chapter, Chapter 6, summarizes the findings of the empirical studies and provides the discussion, conclusion, limitations, implications and suggestions for future research.

This thesis sought to address and improve resolve some issues surrounding tests of recognition memory in animals. Since these spontaneous object recognition memory tasks are widely used, especially in mice, there is a need to develop a recognition task that would reduce the variability, extend and translate the task to potential areas of neuroscience research. Study 1 sought to validate the continual trials approach that was originally designed for rats to mice and replicate the findings of Ameen-Ali et al., (2012) in the spontaneous object recognition and object-location task. Study 1 found that performance of mice was comparable to previous studies of object recognition and object location memory, and statistically meaningful results were obtained with approximately 30 – 50 % fewer mice than typically used in the standard one trial a day version of the spontaneous object recognition tasks. Study 2 sought to extend the continual trials apparatus to establish the age-related changes of object recognition and object-location memory in normal ageing mice; and found that ageing mice showed no age-related decline of recognition memory. Study 3 found no evidence of age-related changes of object recognition and object-location memory in a transgenic mouse model of Alzheimer’s Disease, TASTPM mice. In study 4, the continual trials apparatus was adapted to incorporate variable retention delays (by blocking the sample and test phases) and found no evidence of delay-dependent effect on object recognition memory. Study 5 provided novel evidence that NMDA blockade using the MK-801 drug had no effect on object recognition memory in mice when controlled for state-dependency of memory. The key findings of this thesis include the successful validation of the continual trials apparatus in mice and the evidence that studies using reduced number of mice can nonetheless provide valid results in object recognition memory tasks.

Persons who pose threats of violence can be rich sources of information for professionals charged with ensuring safety and security. The interviewing of threateners is thus considered important among such professionals, but research on the topic is scarce. This thesis seeks to advance current knowledge by proposing a scientific perspective on effective threat assessment and management (TAM) interviewing. What are the expected dynamics when interacting with persons who threaten to cause harm and, given these dynamics, which interview methods work best? A novel experimental paradigm was developed and employed in Studies I, II, and III. Participants were given a fictitious case describing two conflicting parties and were then asked to take on the role of the threatening party in a subsequent interview with the conflicting party. Study I (N = 157) examined whether individuals’ intent to actualise a threat becomes evident in how they verbalise that threat. Intent was manipulated across three conditions through the likelihood to actualise the threat: low likelihood (no intent: bluffers), medium likelihood (weak intent: conditional actualisers), and high likelihood (strong intent: decisive actualisers). Based on theory and research in cognitive psychology, it was predicted that decisive actualisers would provide the most detail about the implementation of the threat, followed by conditional actualisers, and bluffers would provide the least. The opposite trend was found: Persons more likely to actualise a threat were found to be less informative about its implementation. Study II (N = 179) tested the effect of two interview techniques (low vs. high suspicion-oriented) on the information provided by bluffers and actualisers. Drawing on psychological research examining lie detection, it was theorised that the need to be believed would be more urgent for bluffers than for actualisers. Hence, bluffers were expected to be more forthcoming when questioned about their threats and, in particular, when the questions communicated suspicion. As expected, bluffers provided more information in response to specific questions as compared to actualisers, especially with regard to implementation details (replicating Study I). However, the difference between bluffers and actualisers was not further accentuated by the use of suspicion-oriented questions. Furthermore, Study II explored whether threatening participants had used counter-interview strategies. Participants were found to be forthcoming, while also being strategic and adaptive to interviewers’ responses. Study III (N = 120) tested the hypothesis that rapport-based interviewing would be more effective for threat assessment and management purposes than direct interviewing. Against expectations, no differences were found between interview protocols pertaining to the threateners’ use of counter-interview strategies, their information provision, or their willingness to pursue/discuss the threat. Furthermore, the study advanced Study II by exploring what types of counter-interview strategies threateners employ. Again, threateners were found to be both forthcoming and strategic. The most frequently reported strategies were to prove capability and to conceal information. Study IV was an online study that investigated whether threat assessments made by professionals were of higher quality than those made by non-professionals. Threat assessment professionals, university students, and laypersons assessed the risk for violence in three fictitious cases. In alignment with the literature on expert decision-making, it was predicted that professionals (vs. students and laypersons) would agree more with one another with respect to risk assessments and that their information search would more resemble empirically supported threat cues. The results supported both hypotheses. Taking the results of the studies together, it could be concluded that threateners are semi-cooperative interviewees, whose attitudes may not be impacted by general interview approaches (e.g. rapport-based, suspicion-oriented). Instead, the findings suggest that more strategic techniques developed from the perspective of threateners (which result in their motivation to be informative prevailing over their need to be strategic) are needed.

How do infants grow in and into culture? How do they become competent participants in networks of meaning-making including people and artefacts? Typically research addressing these questions starts looking from the end of the first year, when infants' early dyadic social interactions are supposed to turn "triadic", that is, are extended to include objects and aspects of the world, only then giving rise to cultural learning, symbol use, co-operative participation. In the face of mismatches with everyday experience and counter-evidence from recent empirical studies, we revisit several research programs dealing explicitly with the development of infant-caregiver-object interactions to arrive at a critical appreciation of how the concept of triadic interaction and the core narrative developed. On this basis, and drawing from embodiment, situatedness, and dynamical systems, we construct our own approach for exploring the development of jointly practicing social object activities, which we frame in terms of attention- and action-coordination. We conducted a naturalistic longitudinal study visiting 16 infants in their homes once a month from 3-12 months and documenting infant-caregiver-object interactions. Adapting techniques from interaction and conversation analysis, and using macro-and micro-analysis of video recordings, we 1) explore and analyse the development of book sharing as a model activity over the first year of life, we 2) develop concepts and methods to characterize and analyse different modes of engagement, and patterns of coordination, infants and caregivers employ in a wide variety of ecological contexts, and 3) introduce the notion of jointly moving through affect-imbued action arcs together. Finally, we 4) sketch a tentative developmental trajectory of participation in social object activities, reconceptualising the shift from "dyadic" to "triadic" interactions as "jointly structuring shared spaces of meaning-and-action" of increasing complexity. In particular, we propose the mapping of complex action structures on familiar affect-imbued action arcs as a bridge towards activities such as collaborative participation, symbol and conventional object use, cultural learning and co-creation.

The over-arching aim of the research conducted for this thesis was to examine underlying issues in memory and decision-making that impact eyewitness identification procedures in the context of multiple perpetrator crimes. In one survey and five experiments, we (i) explored key concerns in multiple perpetrator identifications in police practice in three EU countries (Police Survey), (ii) tested the independence of multiple identification decisions made successively (Experiments 1, 2 and 3) and (iii) examined the purported utility of using other faces as contextual cues for recognizing the faces of multiple perpetrators (Experiments 4 and 5). In the survey we asked police officers (from Sweden, Belgium, and the Netherlands) to describe how agencies in various countries conduct and regulate identification procedures with multiple perpetrators. Results demonstrated sizeable differences in police practice between countries and highlighted the importance of determining whether there are consequences of testing memory on multiple lineups presented in succession. In Experiments 1 and 2, participants watched a mock-crime film involving three perpetrators and later made three showup identification decisions, one showup for each perpetrator. Experiments 1 and 2 used similar procedures, with the exception of varied patterns of target-presence. Across both experiments, evidence for sequential dependencies for choosing behavior was inconsistent. In Experiment 1, responses on the second, target-present showup assimilated towards previous choosing. However, in Experiment 2, responses on the second showup contrasted previous choosing regardless of target-presence. Experiment 3 examined whether methodological differences between the recognition and eyewitness paradigms used in previous research on sequential dependencies might account for the inconsistent findings in Experiments 1 and 2. Participants studied pairs of words, landscapes, or faces, and were later tested for recognition. Sequential dependencies were detected in recognition decisions over many trials, including recognition for faces: the probability of a yes response on the current trial increased if the previous response was also yes (vs. no). However, choosing behavior on previous trials did not predict individual recognition decisions on the current trial. In Experiments 4 and 5, we sought replicate facilitative effects in cued face recognition, to (i) investigate the mechanisms underlying those effects, and (ii) determine whether such effects would extend to more than two faces. Participants encoded sets of individual, paired, or groups of four faces and were tested with no cues, correct cues (a face previously studied with the target test face), or incorrect cues (a never-before-seen face). Hit rates were not affected by either cue type or face encoding condition, but cuing of any kind (correct or incorrect) appeared to provide a protective buffer to reduce false-alarm rates in the two- and four-face conditions through increased sensitivity, but mostly reduced response bias. The present research on sequential dependencies for identification decisions suggests that the integrity of identification and recognition decisions is not likely to be impacted by making multiple decisions in a row. However, our findings suggest that cued face recognition may be a useful technique to use for reducing false recognition rates in contexts with multiple faces. Throughout the thesis, we argue for the systematic examination of influential factors that are both unique and inherent to practice, memory, and decision-making for multiple perpetrator identification and recognition.