Rumor Has It: The Moderating Effect of Identification on Rumor Impact and the Effectiveness of Rumor Refutation1

Two studies were undertaken to examine the moderating effect of identification with a rumor target on rumor impact and refutation effectiveness. We show that identification and its opposite, disidentification, bias the way individuals react to a rumor. That is, as identification with the rumor target increased from disidentification to neutral to identification, belief in an aversive rumor declined. Furthermore, the effectiveness of a refutation was moderated by an individual's level of identification. People with a neutral identification level processed a refutation heuristically and were persuaded by it, whether it contained strong or weak arguments. Disidentifiers, who engaged in systematic processing, believed the rumor less only when the refutation contained strong arguments. Identifiers, processing heuristically, remained unbelieving in the rumor.     

Counseling on the Information Highway: Future Possibilities and Potential Problems

The evolution of the Internet into the information highway offers many future possibilities and potential problems in the delivery of counseling services. Features of the current Internet are briefly reviewed, and the results of an analysis of counseling applications on the Internet are presented and discussed. Current experience with computer networks, counseling applications, and the likely features of the future information highway provides a foundation for exploring the potential benefits and limitations of using this technology in counseling.     

Social Comparison and Information Transmission in the Work Context

In the workplace, people can experience various types of failure and frustrations resulting in spontaneous social comparisons with other colleagues who are more (upward comparison) or less (downward comparison) successful. Upward comparisons especially have been shown to increase envy toward the outperforming benchmark colleague, which could negatively affect social interaction with this colleague. In line with this, our results consistently show that upward comparisons are associated with higher levels of experienced envy, as well as with a lower transmission rate of high-quality information. By contrast, type of social comparison had no impact on the amount of transmitted low-quality, work-relevant information. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Does Ontology Rest on a Mistake?: Stephen Yablo

The usual charge against Carnap's internal/external distinction is one of 'guilt by association with analytic/synthetic'. But it can be freed of this association, to become the distinction between statements made within make-believe games and those made outside them—or, rather, a special case of it with some claim to be called the metaphorical/literal distinction. Not even Quine considers figurative speech committal, so this turns the tables somewhat. To determine our ontological commitments, we have to ferret out all traces of non-literality in our assertions; if there is no sensible project of doing that, there is no sensible project of Quinean ontology.     

Does Ontology Rest on a Mistake?: Andre Gallois

I discuss Steve Yablo's defence of Carnap's distinction between internal and external questions. In the first section I set out what I take that distinction, as Carnap draws it, to be, and spell out a central motivation Carnap has for invoking it. In the second section I endorse, and augment, Yablo's response to Quine's arguments against Carnap. In the third section I say why Carnap's application of the distinction between internal and external questions runs into trouble. In the fourth section I spell out what I take to be Yablo's version of Carnap. In the last I say why that version is especially vulnerable to the objection raised in the second.     

Anticipated Ongoing Interaction Versus Channel Effects on Relational Communication in Computer-Mediated Interaction

Previous research on the interpersonal tone of computer-mediated communication shows different effects using longitudinal computer-mediated groups than are found in research using one-shot groups, even before the developmental aspects associated with time can accrue. One factor distinguishing these approaches is the anticipation of future interaction experienced by longitudinal groups. This research reports an experiment assessing the relative effects of anticipated future interaction and different communication media (computer-mediated versus face-to-face communication) on the communication of relational intimacy and composure. Asynchronous and synchronous computer conferencing and face-to-face groups were examined. Results show that the assignment of long-term versus short-term partnerships has a larger impact on anticipated future interaction reported by computer-mediated, rather than face-to-face, partners. Evidence also shows that anticipation is a more potent predictor of several relational communication dimensions than is communication condition. Implications for theory and practice are identified.     

信号检测论实验中的信息传递效率

信号检测论和信息论在心理学实验中得到了广泛的应用,许多实验心理学教材也详细阐述了这两种理论所派生的心理学实验。那么,这两个理论之间有什么联系呢?同样一个实验的结果用这两个理论来审视能否得到不同的结论呢?实际上。无论是信号检测论实验还是信息传递效率实验,被试面临的任务是非常相似的：都是辨别不同的刺激、做出不同的反应,只不过信号检测论实验只涉及两种刺激——信号和噪音,而信息传递效率实验可以涉及更多种类的刺激。     

The Effect of Message Persistence and Disclosure on Liking in Computer-Mediated Communication

In computer-mediated communication (CMC) systems, the messages that a user types usually persist on the screen for some time, a feature that distinguishes CMC from face-to-face interaction. Persistence may activate psychological self-perception, leading communicators to infer from their persistent messaging how they feel about the subject more so than if messages did not persist. This study applies persistence and self-perception to the relationships between self-disclosure and liking. It identifies which among several disclosure or liking relationships may be most susceptible to self-perception effects. An experiment found that message persistence interacts with a conversational partner’s responses to self-disclosure and intensifies liking toward the partner. Suggestions follow for future research further exploring the mechanisms of persistence, and reconceptualizing self-perception factors in interactive media settings.     

An Empirical Investigation of the Impact of Process Monitoring on Computer-Mediated Decision-Making Performance

The need to support individuals in the implementation of their decision-making strategies has often been articulated. However, computerized decision support addressing this need is conspicuous by its absence. We argue that this lack is a consequence of the dearth of theoretical guidance for the derivation of practical design guidelines. This paper, utilizing research in psychology and cognitive engineering, attempts to fill this theoretical gap. A laboratory experiment testing the utility of a DSS incorporating the derived design guidelines is described. Results indicate that itispossible to incorporate implementation support into DSS, that such support increases decision making efficiency and effectiveness, and that need as well as usefulness of such support increases with the level of complexity of the decision strategy.     

Information Transmission in Young Children: When Social Information Is More Important Than Nonsocial Information

The authors’ aim was to use a highly novel open diffusion paradigm to investigate the transmission of social information (i.e., gossip) and general knowledge within 2 groups of 10- and 11-year-old children. Four children, 2 from each group, acted as a primed information source, selected on the basis of sex and dominance ranking (high or low) within the group. Each source received 1 piece of gossip and 1 piece of general knowledge from the experimenter during natural class interaction, and the information was allowed to diffuse naturally within the group. Results revealed that gossip was transmitted more frequently than knowledge, and that male sources were more likely to transmit gossip than female sources. The relationship between characteristics of the source, and characteristics of the gossip recipient, also appeared influential with the dominant male source transmitting gossip to exclusively to friends, and the nondominant male source transmitting to individuals of higher peer regard than themselves.     

刻板印象信息表征的模式及其功能

从积极、中性、消极三种不同效价的刻板印象出发,采用回忆—练习范式和再认范式探讨了刻板印象表征中的信息组织模式及其功能。研究表明,不论刻板印象的效价如何,刻板印象的内容都是按照效价一致的原则组织的,即积极信息与积极信息紧密的组织在一起,消极信息与消极信息紧密的组织在一起。这种组织信息的模式在社会认知过程中起着一种平行的促进—抑制作用,从而使人们只需利用较少的认知资源便迅速对某一靶子形成一种评价一致的印象     

Cultural Transmission in International Organizations Impact of Interpersonal Communication Patterns in Intergroup Contexts

This study examined how organizational cultures are transmitted and maintained through interactions among organizational members across intergroup boundaries. The major hypothesis of interest was that the total number of individuals' out-group communication network links predicts the degree of individual-out-group transmission of work-related values and beliefs. The research design involved a survey of workers in international organizations with bicultural workforces (U.S. and Japanese). A total of 118 responses were submitted to a series of multiple regression analyses. The results provided evidence to support the relationship between communication and cultural transmission. Theoretically, it addressed two issues that have not been dealt with in social influence theories. First, it identified different types of social influence: agreement, accuracy, and congruency derived from the coorientation model. Second, it identified specific conditions under which social influence takes place by examining relational proximity in three different types of networks.     

Generality of a Theory of Collective Induction: Face-to-Face and Computer-Mediated Interaction,Amount of Potential Information,and Group versus Member Choice of Evidence

In order to assess the generality of a theory of collective induction that has previously been supported for face-to-face interaction (Laughlin and Hollingshead, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 1995), three experiments compared face-to-face and computer-mediated interaction for four-person groups for three successive rule induction problems. The predictions of the theory fit the obtained probabilities of group hypotheses for distributions of member hypotheses better than four other plausible models for both face-to-face and computer-mediated groups, over four levels of potential information, and for group versus member choice of evidence. There were comparable numbers of correct hypotheses for face-to-face and computer-mediated interaction, increasing correct hypotheses with increasing potential information, and comparable numbers of correct hypotheses for group versus member choice of evidence. The three experiments indicate the generality of the theory for both traditional face-to-face interaction and computer-mediated interaction, four levels of potential information, and group versus member choice of information. The comparisons of face-to-face and computer-mediated interaction extend the emphasis on social communication processes on decision and idea generation tasks of previous research to social combination processes in the acquisition and processing of new information in cooperative rule learning.     

Work and Rest Variables in the Acquisition of Psychomotor Tracking Skill

College students (75 men, 75 women) matched in preliminary performance of 100 sec on the rotary pursuit apparatus were randomly assigned to five experimental groups. Their work/rest ratios, measured in seconds, were: 20/20, 30/30, 60/60, 90/90,120/120. All subjects received 30 min of total practice time after the matching trial. There was a significant practice effect and a significant practice x conditions interaction, but no main effect due to the cycles’ length or number. The decay rate of reactive inhibition (lr) is probably independent of its prior growth level; hence postrest residual lr is proportional to prerest accumulation. Partly because they generated lr in hypothetically greater amounts, women were significantly less proficient on the average than men, and sex interacted with practice. Although males had higher initial and final levels of ability than females, the two sexes’ acquisition curves showed the same rate parameters in our mathematical model.     

Child and Adult Sensitivity to Gender Information in Patterns of Facial Motion

Sixty 5-year-olds and 120 adults participated in research that examined the development of sensitivity to gender information in patterns of facial motion. Subjects were asked to identify the gender of static or dynamic versions of point-light stimulus faces. The dynamic facial displays were filmed either while the stimulus recited the alphabet or while they were engaged in an interaction. Although adults' levels of identification accuracy were greater than those obtained by children, both age groups were able to identify the gender of dynamic facial displays at greater than chance levels. However, adults were able to identify the gender of both reciting and interacting faces, whereas children could only discriminate sex at greater than chance levels when observing interacting faces.