A new measure for an important construct: the attachment and object relations inventory

This article describes the development of the Attachment and Object Relations Inventory (AORI). The AORI, a dimensional measure based on factor structure, was developed in response to the psychometric problems typical to attachment style measures that are categorical in nature. Test-retest reliability and internal consistency were high. A factor analysis of the 75 AORI items confirmed the existence of at least 6 factors and explained approximately 50% of the item variance. Convergent and discriminant validity of the AORI was supported through appropriate relationships with measures of depression, anxiety, and personality, and other measures of attachment and object relations.     

Dynamic object individuation in rhesus macaques: a study of the tunnel effect

A manual-search experiment with rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) explored dynamic object individuation in the tunnel effect: Subjects watched as a lemon rolled down a ramp and came to rest behind a tunnel (Occluder 1) and then as a kiwifruit emerged and became occluded at the end of its path behind a screen (Occluder 2). When the kiwifruit emerged at about the time that the lemon should have (had it continued its motion), subjects searched for food only behind Occluder 2-apparently perceiving the lemon to have transformed into a kiwifruit on the basis of spatiotemporally continuous motion. In contrast, when a brief pause interrupted the occlusion of the lemon and the emergence of the kiwifruit, monkeys searched for food behind both occluders. With further control conditions, this experiment demonstrates a spatiotemporal bias-similar to a bias found in adult visual perception-in the computation of object persistence in the context of a dynamic correspondence problem.     

The persistence of object file representations

Coherent visual experience of dynamic scenes requires not only that the visual system segment scenes into component objects but that these object representations persist, so that an object can be identified as the same object from an earlier time. Object files (OFs) are visual representations thought to mediate such abilities: OFs lie between lower level sensory processing and higher level recognition, and they track salient objects over time and motion. OFs have traditionally been studied via object-specific preview benefits (OSPBs), in which discriminations of an object's features are speeded when an earlier preview of those features occurred on the same object, as opposed to on a different object, beyond general displaywide priming. Despite its popularity, many fundamental aspects of the OF framework remain unexplored. For example, although OFs are thought to be involved primarily in online visual processing, we do not know how long such representations persist; previous studies found OSPBs for up to 1500 msec but did not test for longer durations. We explored this issue using a modified object reviewing paradigm and found that robust OSPBs persist for more than five times longer than has previously been tested-for at least 8 sec, and possibly for much longer. Object files may be the "glue" that makes visual experience coherent not just in online moment-by-moment processing, but on the scale of seconds that characterizes our everyday perceptual experiences. These findings also bear on research in infant cognition, where OFs are thought to explain infants' abilities to track and enumerate small sets of objects over longer durations.     

Information persistence in the integration of partial cues for object recognition

A great many studies have shown that the perceptual effects of very brief visual stimuli can persist beyond the duration of the stimulus itself. These effects include sustained perception of the stimulus even though it is no longer present and the integration of information across an interstimulus interval. These two forms of sustained activity can be characterized as visible persistence and information persistence. Iconic memory protocols and a number of discrimination tasks have demonstrated the existence of information persistence that can last up to several hundred milliseconds, but there is little evidence that the cues needed for identification of objects can be transferred across intervals in this range. In the present experiments, a minimal transient discrete cue protocol was used to demonstrate that shape cues, these being provided by subsets of dots that mark the outer boundary of nameable objects, can be integrated over several hundred milliseconds and that the duration is a function of ambient room illumination. The experiments further evaluated whether this information persistence is mediated by visible persistence. Although both perceptual effects have durations that are an inverse function of room illumination, the ability to integrate partial shape cues was not determined by the duration of visible persistence.     

The effect of irrelevant spatial correspondences on two-choice response-time.

Simon and his associates have demonstrated a general effect in two-choice reaction- time tasks involving laterally disposed responses, and a succession of stimuli presented unpredictably at either of two laterally disposed positions, the stimulus positions being irrelevant in deciding the response. Reaction times are found to be faster for trials in which the spatial loci of stimulus and response correspond than for trials in which they counter-correspond. The present experiment investigated the dependence of this effect upon spatial orientation and upon the logical character of the task. The effect was found not only for laterally disposed pairs of stimulus positions and responses but also for vertical dispositions. The effect was found to be critically dependent upon the logical character of the task, such that it could readily be produced in a reversed form. The results could be well described by considering the logical characters of the recodings of the relevant and irrelevant attributes of stimulus and response. The special status formerly attributed to the processing of spatial information is questioned.     

Cohesion as a constraint on object persistence in infancy

A critical challenge for visual perception is to represent objects as the same persisting individuals over time and motion. Across several areas of cognitive science, researchers have identified cohesion as among the most important theoretical principles of object persistence: An object must maintain a single bounded contour over time. Drawing inspiration from recent work in adult visual cognition, the present study tested the power of cohesion as a constraint as it operates early in development. In particular, we tested whether the most minimal cohesion violation - a single object splitting into two - would destroy infants' ability to represent a quantity of objects over occlusion. In a forced-choice crawling paradigm, 10- and 12-month-old infants witnessed crackers being sequentially placed into containers, and typically crawled toward the container with the greater cracker quantity. When one of the crackers was visibly split in half, however, infants failed to represent the relative quantities, despite controls for the overall quantities and the motions involved. This result helps to characterize the fidelity and specificity of cohesion as a fundamental principle of object persistence, suggesting that even the simplest possible cohesion violation can dramatically impair infants' object representations and influence their overt behavior.     

A motor similarity effect in object memory

In line with theories of embodied cognition (e.g., Versace et al. European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 21, 522–560, 2009), several studies have suggested that the motor system used to interact with objects in our environment is involved in object recognition (e.g., Helbig, Graf, & Kiefer Experimental Brain Research, 174, 221-228, 2006). However, the role of the motor system in immediate memory for objects is more controversial. The objective of the present study was to investigate the role of the motor system in object memory by manipulating the similarity between the actions associated to series of objects to be retained in memory. In Experiment 1, we showed that lists of objects associated to dissimilar actions were better recalled than lists associated to similar actions. We then showed that this effect was abolished when participants were required to perform a concurrent motor suppression task (Experiment 2) and when the objects to be memorized were unmanipulable (Experiment 3). The motor similarity effect provides evidence for the role of motor affordances in object memory.     

A new measure of social classes

Social classes' ‘way we live’ values remain a major influence on consumers' retail store choices, their brand choices for major durables, and their use of health services and pharmaceutical products. Social class, however, has been neglected in modern theories and research in consumer behavior, probably because of the difficulty of implementing a proper sociological measure of social class distinctions coupled with the realization that convenient sociodemographic measures of social class are not a valid substitute for the sociological measure. A new 34‐item values‐based measure of social class is presented in this article, called the Social Class Values Index (SCVI). The SCVI efficiently distinguishes the six traditional social‐class strata that are based on attributed social prestige and contributes to the first known measure of the non–prestige‐based, largely self‐actualized ‘X’ class. The SCVI is interviewer‐administered and is easily profile‐scored from simple binary answers. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A new argument for the phenomenal approach to personal persistence

Philosophical Studies - When it comes to personal identity, two approaches have long ruled the roost. The first is the psychological approach, which has it that our persistence through time...     

A new measure of perfectionism: the Perfectionism Inventory

In this investigation, we produced a new 8-scale measure of perfectionism called the Perfectionism Inventory (PI) that is designed to capture the important constructs provided by 2 existing Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (MPS; Frost, Marten, Lahart, & Rosenblate, 1990; Hewitt & Flett, 1991b) measures, along with new perfectionism scales. In the results from 3 studies, we describe scale development, scale psychometric properties, and criterion-related validity evidence for the 8 PI scales: Concern Over Mistakes, High Standards for Others, Need for Approval, Organization, Parental Pressure, Planfulness, Rumination, and Striving for Excellence. We present relationships between the 8 PI scales, relevant MPS scales, and other criterion measures. Second-order exploratory and confirmatory analyses provide support for the 8-scale PI model as well as support for 2 composite PI factors labeled Conscientious Perfectionism and Self-Evaluative Perfectionism.     

On the tunnel effect

The experiments described in this paper consist of presenting observers with two similar objects in successive movement in the same plane but of which the end of the first and the beginning of the second are hidden by a screen (tunnel). Under proper experimental conditions the impression received is one of continuous and uniform movement by a single object passing behind the screen.

The hidden phase of this movement assumes all of the characteristics of true, visible movement for its entire extent, and any lengthening of the duration of the invisible phase gives the impression of a momentary halt behind the screen at a definite point. A modification of the position or of the relative orientation of the visible portions of the trajectory influences the apparent form of its invisible portion. This form can be made to assume the aspects of complicated curves which are sketched and described by different observers with remarkable consistency.

All these phenomena are dependent upon the objctive conditions: the speed of the objects while they are visible, the length of the tunnel, the duration of the invisible phase, the relative position of the visible portions of the trajectory; and they vary systematically with these conditions. As one or other of these conditions is varied, the impression of continuity may give way to one of a simple succession of independent movements.

It is thought that the absence of sensory qualities justifies the use of the term “amodal data” to describe the way in which the hidden movement phase makes itself known to the observer. These “amodal data” form the bridge between the modal phases and become an integral part of the total sensory experience. These properties are determined by the nature of the complex system of excitations in the same way as those of the modal phases and one can thus consider this amodal aspect of the combined experience as a truly perceptual phenomenon.     

Job Embeddedness: A new attitudinal measure

Job embeddedness is a relatively new concept that offers the potential to improve our ability to explain why people stay in their jobs. This article outlines the development and testing of new measures of on‐ and off‐the‐job embeddedness. Analyses of survey data show the measures demonstrate adequate psychometric properties across samples (three military and one nonmilitary organization) and across different organizational levels, genders, and tenure, as well as discriminant validity over other turnover‐relevant constructs and appropriate convergent validity with a number of further constructs identified in the literature.     

A meta-analysis of response-time tests of the sequential two-systems model of moral judgment

The (generalized) sequential two-system (“default interventionist”) model of utilitarian moral judgment predicts that utilitarian responses often arise from a system-two correction of system-one deontological intuitions. Response-time (RT) results that seem to support this model are usually explained by the fact that low-probability responses have longer RTs. Following earlier results, we predicted response probability from each subject’s tendency to make utilitarian responses (A, “Ability”) and each dilemma’s tendency to elicit deontological responses (D, “Difficulty”), estimated from a Rasch model. At the point where A = D, the two responses are equally likely, so probability effects cannot account for any RT differences between them. The sequential two-system model still predicts that many of the utilitarian responses made at this point will result from system-two corrections of system-one intuitions, hence should take longer. However, when A = D, RT for the two responses was the same, contradicting the sequential model. Here we report a meta-analysis of 26 data sets, which replicated the earlier results of no RT difference overall at the point where A = D. The data sets used three different kinds of moral judgment items, and the RT equality at the point where A = D held for all three. In addition, we found that RT increased with A–D. This result holds for subjects (characterized by Ability) but not for items (characterized by Difficulty). We explain the main features of this unanticipated effect, and of the main results, with a drift-diffusion model.     

ELF: A new measure of response capture

Response capture is a widespread and extensively studied phenomenon, in particular in decision tasks involving response conflict. Its intensity is routinely quantified by conditional accuracy function (CAF). We argue that this method might be misleading, and propose an alternative approach, the error location function (ELF). While CAF provides the error rate by bins of reaction time (RT), ELF represents the share of total errors below each quantile of RT. We derive from ELF an index of response capture, the error location index (ELI), which represents the area below the ELF. Using simulations of computational models, we show that ELF and ELI specifically quantify variations in response capture. Finally, we illustrate the usefulness of ELF and ELI through experimental data and show that ELF and CAF can yield to contradictory conclusions.     

Extremely long-term persistence of the McCollough effect.

The question has been raised whether an associative mechanism is responsible for the persistence of the McCollough effect. Since current estimates of its rate of decay are derived from procedures in which subjects are repeatedly tested, it was hypothesized that the measured effects might be attenuated by the testing process. Accordingly, a comparison was made between repeated testing and time-elapse testing. A conventional group of 16 subjects had repeated testing at 0, 8, 24, 56, and 120 hr. after induction. Five other groups of 16 were run, each at one of the time delays, with no intervening tests; an additional measure was taken where appropriate at 120 hr. A magenta-green nulling procedure was used to assess the aftereffect. The repeated-test group showed a linear decrease of effect against the stated delays, reaching zero at 120 hr. In contrast, the time-elapse groups showed little decline up to 120 hr. Those groups retested at 120 hr. showed declines due to prior testing. When four more groups were subsequently tested at intervals up to 2,040 hr., the effect remained at better than half strength.     

A factorial study of a new measure of authoritarianism

In the present study scores on Ray's Directiveness scale were subjected to Varimax rotation. Three factors explaining more than 50% of the variance of authoritarianism were interpreted and labelled Submissiveness, Dominance and Aggressiveness, respectively. Although these are in line with Ray's earlier conception of the nature of authoritarianism and do, to some extent, support other findings, it is suggested that the Directiveness scale be expanded to accommodate more characteristics of authoritarianism such as rigidity, hostility and superstitiousness.     

Sexual identity scale: A new self-assessment measure

An individual's subjective evaluation of sexual identity differs from objective evaluation by sex role researchers. This study reports initial validity and reliability data on a new measure of self-ascribed sexual identity: the Sexual Identity Scale (SIS). SIS considers four functional sex dimensions on the basis of components described in both sex and age role literature. SIS and two modified Bem Sex Role Inventory instruments—a Masculinity Trait Index (MTI) and a Femininity Trait Index (FTI)—were administered to an adult sample of 380 men and 380 women aged 20–80. Reliability, assessed with LISREL VI and Cronbach's alpha, was found to be high. LISREL VI findings provide construct validity, both convergent and divergent. The nature of association of biological sex and sex trait measures, high interitem SIS correlations, as well as divergence from the modified sex trait indices (MTI and FTI) also support validity. The study's results and implications are discussed.     

Amodal causal capture in the tunnel effect

In addition to identifying individual objects in the world, the visual system must also characterize the relationships between objects, for instance when objects occlude one another or cause one another to move. Here we explored the relationship between perceived causality and occlusion. Can one perceive causality in an occluded location? In several experiments, observers judged whether a centrally presented event involved a single object passing behind an occluder, or one object causally launching another (out of view and behind the occluder). With no additional context, the centrally presented event was typically judged as a non-causal pass, even when the occluding and disoccluding objects were different colors--an illusion known as the 'tunnel effect' that results from spatiotemporal continuity. However, when a synchronized context event involved an unambiguous causal launch, participants perceived a causal launch behind the occluder. This percept of an occluded causal interaction could also be driven by grouping and synchrony cues in the absence of any explicitly causal interaction. These results reinforce the hypothesis that causality is an aspect of perception. It is among the interpretations of the world that are independently available to vision when resolving ambiguity, and that the visual system can 'fill in' amodally.     

Rats’ novel object interaction as a measure of environmental familiarity

Environmental familiarization is a learning phenomenon embedded within most tasks used to study learning and motivation. Given its prevalence there is surprisingly little systematic behavioral research on factors affecting familiarization. The six experiments reported in the present report used rats’ tendency to interact more with a novel object in a familiar than in a novel environment as a measure of environmental familiarization. We found that 3 min of exposure to the environment was sufficient to increase object interaction above unfamiliar controls even when testing occurred up to 48 h after initial exposure to the environment; 1 or 1.5 min of exposure was not sufficient. Also, in the brief 2 min test, 10 min of environment exposure did not appear to increase object interaction above the 3-min condition. The 3-min of environment exposure was sufficient for familiarization whether environment exposure occurred in one 3 min placement or two 1.5 min placements. Environmental familiarization as measured by object interaction was also sensitive to ‘interference’ manipulations. That is, a distinct object present during initial exposure to the environment produced a level of object interaction in testing comparable to an unfamiliar control. Similarly, exposure to a second distinct alternate environment immediately after, but not before, initial exposure to the test environment partially disrupted environmental familiarization. In sum, object interaction might serve as a useful measure for studying processes mediating environmental familiarity.