The effect of negative feedback about oneself and cost of information on preferences for information about the source of this feedback

The present paper reports an experiment in which different amounts of negative self-discrepant information were induced and its effects on information seeking were tested. In addition, the monetary cost of the information available was manipulated. Subjects received fictitious intelligence test results that were negatively discrepant from their self-evaluation. They were then given the opportunity to choose among several articles containing information that either derogated intelligence tests (test-disparaging information) or argued for their validity (test-supporting information). The relative preference for test-disparaging over test-supporting information increased with feedback discrepancy up to a point, but then decreased as this discrepancy became more extreme. The relative preference in reading desirability for test-disparaging over test-supporting articles was also higher when the information cost money than when it did not. In addition, the difference between the desire for the two types of information was greater under cost than under no cost conditions, particularly at the extreme levels of feedback discrepancy.     

Cognitive tuning and receptivity to novel information

An experiment was conducted to test the hypothesis that cognitive tuning would cause receivers to be more receptive to novel than to familiar information, compared to transmitters. The information receptivity of transmitters and receivers was contrasted against a control group. The influence of the source and audience, possible limits on the influence of the tuning set, was also explored. Finally, amount of variance controlled by cognitive tuning, personality variables and information utility were examined.While the results strongly support the prediction that transmitters prefer familiar information, receivers and control group subjects did not significantly differ in preferences for novel information. The anticipated expertise of source or audience had no influence on information receptivity. Among the three sets of variables used, the greatest amount of variance was explained by information utility, followed by cognitive tuning and personality measures, though all three variables controlled a significant amount of variance.     

Misattribution of arousal and the effects of self-threatening information

Two experiments are reported on the effects of misattributing arousal. In both experiments, subjects took an intelligence test and received fictitious negative results about their performance. In the first experiment, subjects before receiving feedback were given a pill labeled as arousing; however, the ostensible effectiveness of the pill was varied. The greater the alleged strength of the pill, the less the test was derogated following feedback about performance on it and the more effort subjects reported expending on the test. In the second experiment, subjects were told that the pill was either arousing or relaxing and that its effect lasted for either a short or a long period of time. Initial test evaluations were more positive and estimates of effort expended were greater when the pill was described as arousing than when it was described as relaxing. However, whereas these differences were maintained over time when the pill's effects were described as of long duration, they disappeared over time when the pill's effects were described as of short duration.     

Discrepancy detection and vulnerability to misleading postevent information

When people are exposed to misleading details after a witnessed event, they often claim that they saw the misleading details as part of the event. We refer to this as themisinformation effect. In four experiments, involving 570 subjects, we explored the role that discrepancy detection plays in the misinformation effect. Experiment 1 showed that subjects who naturally read a post-event narrative more slowly were more resistant to the effects of misleading information contained in the narrative. In Experiment 2, subjects who naturally read more slowly were more likely to detect a discrepancy between what they were reading and what was stored in their memory. In Experiment 3, subjects who were instructed to read slowly were more likely to detect a discrepancy than were those who were instructed to read quickly. In Experiment 4, subjects who were instructed to read slowly were more resistant to misleading postevent information. Taken together, these results suggest that longer reading times are associated with a greater scrutiny of postevent information. This leads to an increased likelihood that discrepancies will be detected and that the misinformation will be resisted.     

Peripheral-foveal scanning and the identification of heteropalindromes in the visual half-fields

The possible identifying properties of the peripheral-field-to-foveal-field (PFTFF) scan, thought to precede the left-to-right reading scan of English alphabetical arrays, were investigated. Heteropalindromes, letter strings that spell one word when read from left to right but another word when read from right to left, were tachistoscopically exposed in the left or right visual fields of 16 male, dextral college students in each of two experiments. The results support Schissler and Baratta's idea that the scan does not appear to yield detailed stimulus information. We suggest that the direction of this scan is well suited to the requirements of encoding horizontally aligned words, given the acuity/information gradient produced when such stimuli are exposed unilaterally. The direction and operation of the scan prior to the left-to-right reading scan are discussed in terms of an earlier account of the encoding of unilaterally exposed, horizontally aligned English words.     

阅读理解中的预期推理

从工作记忆能力的个体差异的角度,探讨阅读描述日常生活事件的段落时预期推理过程的资源分配特点,及其与阅读焦点转移的关系。结果表明,（１）预期推理可以维持较长时间。（２）工作记忆能力强的被试进行预期推理的范围较广;而工作记忆能力较弱的被试推理范围较小。（３）工作记忆能力较弱者对每一个项目的激活量较大。（４）对于非常熟悉的事件,预期推理不受焦点转移的影响。     

Reducing reliance on inaccurate information

People learn from the texts that they read, but sometimes what they read is wrong. Previous research has demonstrated that individuals encode even obvious inaccuracies, at times relying on the misinformation to complete postreading tasks. In the present study, we investigated whether the influence of inaccurate information might be reduced by encouraging the retrieval of accurate knowledge. Participants read an extended text that contained both accurate and inaccurate assertions, after which they evaluated the validity of statements associated with those assertions. In general, participants made more mistakes in their evaluations of statements after having read inaccurate as compared to accurate assertions, offering evidence of the influence of misinformation. However, when participants were tasked with correcting inaccuracies during reading, their mistakes were substantially reduced. Encouraging the retrieval of accurate knowledge during reading can reduce the influence of misinformation. These findings are discussed with respect to the contributions of episodic traces and prior knowledge on learning, as well as to the conditions that support successful comprehension.     

Diagnosticity,confidence, and the need for information

Recent research has suggested that people prefer to use the most diagnostic available information as the basis for their choices and decisions, and are most confident in those decisions when information is highly diagnostic. However, the effect of information diagnosticity on the need for additional information has yet to be investigated; that is, in an optional stopping task, will the amount of information requested depend upon information diagnosticity? Three models of the role of diagnosticity in information use were examined; expected value, a confidence criterion, and information cost. Subjects attempted to categorize stimuli with the aid of information of varying costs and diagnosticity levels. They requested more information when it was obtained at a low cost. More importantly, across cost conditions, subjects consistently requested greater amounts of information when that information was of a low diagnosticity. These data seem most consistent with use of a confidence criterion that is adjusted for information costs.     

Effects of Photographs on the Selective Reading of News Reports

Respondents examined an experimental news magazine composed of manipulated and unmanipulated articles about relevant social issues. The manipulated articles either featured no photograph, an innocuous photograph, or a photograph depicting others' impending or manifest victimization. Respondents were free to read whatever they deemed of interest. Time restriction did not allow them, however, to read all available articles in their entirety. Under these selective-exposure conditions, article preferences and reading times were unobtrusively recorded. Additionally, an information-acquisition test was administered after the reading of the magazine. It was found that the text of articles accompanied by photographs, especially by photographs depicting victimization, was read for longer periods of time. Moreover, the acquisition of textual information was markedly facilitated by the presence of photographs depicting victimization.     

Perceiving words during reading: Lack of facilitation from prior peripheral exposure

As their eye movements were being monitored, college students read short texts displayed on a cathode-ray tube. As they read, the contents of certain word locations changed from fixation to fixation, alternating between two words differing in two letters. This manipulation had no effect on reading unless the subjects happened to regress to or reread the word later. The results indicated that these words, which were low in contextual constraint, were read only when directly fixated, and that there was no facilitation from prior peripherally obtained information about the words.     

Test anxiety and comprehension efficiency: The role of prior knowledge and working memory deficits

The hypotheses that test anxiety is associated with a deficit in prior knowledge and/or working memory capacity, that anxiety impairs comprehension efficiency, and that deficits in knowledge and capacity underlie the efficiency impairment, were tested. In Study 1, high-anxiety students were characterized by lower scores in several vocabulary measures, compared with low-anxiety students. In Study 2, high-anxiety individuals showed inferior working memory capacity to low-anxiety individuals under evaluative stress conditions, but not under non-stress conditions. In Study 3 high-anxiety subjects exhibited lower efficiency scores than low-anxiety subjects in expository texts without a summary: The former employed a greater amount of reading time than the latter to acquire an equivalent amount of information. In addition, the disadvantage in efficiency associated with anxiety was removed when differences in vocabulary knowledge were partialled out statistically. Instead, that disadvantage was only reduced, but not eliminated, when differences in transitory working memory capacity were partialled out. Therefore, the prior knowledge deficit hypothesis accounts for the impairment in reading efficiency associated with high anxiety better than the transitory working memory reduction hypothesis.     

Cognitive biases in blaming the victim

Past research on cognitive biases has demonstrated the existence of a hindsight effect, whereby the receipt of outcome knowledge increases the perceived likelihood of the reported event. Three experiments were conducted that tested and supported the hindsight effect as a cause of victim blaming. Subjects read detailed accounts that were identical except for the concluding sentence, which provided outcome information. Half the subjects in each experiment were informed that the woman narrating the account was raped; the other half read a neutral outcome. Experiment 1 demonstrated that subjects were unable to ignore the influence of outcome knowledge, leading to an exaggerated perception of how likely the outcome appeared. In Experiment 2, the woman was blamed more by subjects who read the rape outcome than by those who read the neutral outcome, despite the presentation of identical behaviors and personality traits prior to outcome information. The increased blame attributed by rape outcome subjects was behavioral, and not characterological, in nature. Experiment 3 found a direct association between the hindsight effect and victim blaming and also demonstrated that an attempt to reduce the negative impact of the hindsight effect on victim blaming was ineffective due to the salience of the rape outcome. Explaining how a neutral outcome was possible given the same account did not reduce victim blaming by subjects who received a rape outcome. Rather, those who received a neutral outcome increased their victim blaming when asked to explain a rape outcome. The implications for victims are discussed.     

Misattribution, preparatory information, and speech anxiety

In two experiments with undergraduate subjects, I compared the effects of misattribution versus information manipulations on speech anxiety. In Experiment 1, some subjects were allegedly exposed to subliminal noise while reading a speech in front of a camera. These subjects were told that subliminal noise makes people feel either unpleasantly aroused or pleasantly relaxed or that it has no effect. Subjects in a fourth condition were given accurate information about how they would feel (unpleasantly aroused) but were not exposed to the subliminal noise misattribution source. In Experiment 2, I replicated the arousing noise and accurate information conditions from the first study and added two new groups incorporating a delay that should preclude misattribution. In both experiments, the alleged presence of arousing subliminal noise reduced subjects' speech dysfluencies during the speech task, whereas the presentation of accurate information alone did not have a comparable ameliorative effect. Thus, both experiments supported the misattribution interpretation of why neutral labels for arousal can reduce emotionality.     

Ambiguity of acceptance,social desirability,and dating choice

Male subjects differing in social desirability (likableness, physical attractiveness) chose a date from an array of females of three levels of physical attractiveness. Choices were made under two conditions: one where acceptance was assured regardless of whom subject chose; the other where acceptance was left ambiguous. The findings were as follows: (a) subjects selected a more physically attractive female when assured of acceptance than when acceptance was left ambiguous; (b) subjects estimated that highly physically attractive females were less likely to accept them as a date than were either moderately physically attractive or physically unattractive females; (c) subjects' self-ratings of their likableness were not related to the physical attractiveness of their choices under either choice condition nor to their estimates of their chances that the females would accept them as a date; and (d) subjects' self-evaluated physical attractiveness, although unrelated to the physical attractiveness of the subjects' choices, did relate to subjects' estimates of their chances of acceptance. Highly physically attractive subjects estimated their chances of acceptance as better than did subjects who considered themselves low in physical attractiveness. The implications of the findings for the “matching hypothesis” are discussed.     

Interest Patterns Associated with Measures of Social Desirability

This study summarizes the analysis of the interest patterns of 1,777 elementary and junior high school students as related to a sociometric device and teachers' ratings. The subjects were asked their preferences in terms of class interests, television viewing habits, music listening preferences, study preferences, study habits, vocational plans, and choices of reading as distributed over comic books, magazines, and literary books. In addition, demographic and employment data were obtained. A number of dropouts were identified four years later and their responses on these measures were compared with students who remained in school. The results of the study indicate that sociometric status and teachers' ratings as measures of social desirability do differentiate between certain interest patterns and these patterns are associated with a broad extroversion-introversion continuum. Dropouts were found to differ on certain of these measures.