Fearful faces are believed to be prioritized in visual perception. However, it is unclear whether the processing of low-level facial features alone can facilitate such prioritization or whether higher-level mechanisms also contribute. We examined potential biases for fearful face perception at the levels of perceptual decision-making and perceptual confidence. We controlled for lower-level visu...

Perceiving an external stimulus not only depends on the physical features of the stimulus, but also fundamentally on the current state of neuronal excitability, indexed by the power of ongoing alpha oscillations. Recent studies suggest that heightened excitability does not improve perceptual acuity, but biases observers to report the presence of a stimulus regardless of its physical presence. I...

Although there is a growing interest in understanding how perceptual mechanisms influence behavioral evolution, few studies have addressed how perception itself is shaped by evolutionary forces. We used a combination of artificial neural network models and behavioral experiments to investigate how evolutionary history influenced the perceptual processes used in mate choice by female túngara fro...

When items are presented sequentially, the evaluation of current item is biased by both previous item’s value (perceptual bias) and response given (response bias). While these biases have been identified in judgements facial attractiveness, it unclear as to whether they produce assimilation and/or contrast effects. Here, two tasks were employed measure each bias isolation. By presenting a prece...

This paper uses a unique data set to investigate the link between the pay and performance of school principals. It is frequently argued that public sector CEOs are paid like bureaucrats with little reward for good performance. However, this ignores the possibility of implicit labor market incentives. We show that pay is indeed linked to publicly observable performance measures. Moreover poorly ...