Task difficulty reduces the left visual hemispace bias for judgments of emotion in chimeric faces

A prior study (Carbary, Almerigi, & Harris, 2001) of adults' judgments of emotional chimeric faces showed that the left visual hemispace (LVH) bias normally found on a free-viewing chimeric faces test is reduced when the task is judged to be difficult. Taking into account theory and research on hemispheric differences in styles, or strategies, of information processing, we proposed that the reduction was related to a change in these strategies. Two new experiments are presented that independently manipulate task difficulty and show the same task difficulty-related effect as in our prior study. Data are also presented suggesting that the strategy most commonly adopted for difficult judgments is part-based or feature-oriented, whereas the strategy most commonly adopted for easy judgments is reliance on "first impression."     

Toward understanding why fairness matters: the influence of mortality salience on reactions to procedural fairness

This article focuses on the question of why fairness matters to people. On the basis of fairness heuristic theory, the authors argue that people especially need fairness when they are uncertain about things that are important to them. Following terror management theory, the authors focus on a basic kind of human uncertainty: fear of death. Integrating these two theoretical frameworks, it is proposed that thinking about their mortality should make fairness a more important issue to people. The findings of three experiments support the authors' line of reasoning: Asking participants to think about their mortality led to stronger fair process effects (positive effects of perceived procedural fairness on subsequent reactions) than not asking them to think about mortality. It is argued that these findings suggest that fairness especially matters to people when they are uncertain about fundamental aspects of human life such as human mortality.     

Sunk-cost effects on purely behavioral investments

Although the sunk-cost effect is a well-documented psychological phenomenon in monetary investments, existing literature investigating behavioral investments (e.g., time, effort) has not replicated this effect except when such investments relate to monetary values. The current explanation for this discrepancy proposes that purely behavioral sunk-cost effects are unlikely to be observed because they are difficult to book, track, and balance in a mental account. Conversely, we argue that, through an effort-justification mechanism, people account for the amount of behavioral resources invested when selecting an alternative, in which case they may fall prey to purely behavioral sunk-cost effects. The results of two experiments support this prediction. Because many decisions involve behavioral investments, behavioral sunk-cost effects should be pervasive psychological phenomena.     

Listening, not watching: situational familiarity and the ability to detect deception

In 4 experiments, the authors investigated the influence of situational familiarity with the judgmental context on the process of lie detection. They predicted that high familiarity with a situation leads to a more pronounced use of content cues when making judgments of veracity. Therefore, they expected higher classification accuracy of truths and lies under high familiarity. Under low situational familiarity, they expected that people achieve lower accuracy rates because they use more nonverbal cues for their veracity judgments. In all 4 experiments, participants with high situational familiarity achieved higher accuracy rates in classifying both truthful and deceptive messages than participants with low situational familiarity. Moreover, mediational analyses demonstrated that higher classification accuracy in the high-familiarity condition was associated with more use of verbal content cues and less use of nonverbal cues.     

On preferences and doing the right thing: Satisfaction with advantageous inequity when cognitive processing is limited

We examine outcome satisfaction in situations in which people receive better outcomes than comparable other persons. Building on classical and modern social psychological theories, we argue that when reacting to these arrangements of advantageous inequity, judging the advantage is quick and easy as preferences are primary. We further propose that adjusting this appraisal requires cognitive resources as it entails integrating fairness concerns with the initial preference appraisal. Extending the literature on cognitive busyness, we therefore predict that people should be more satisfied with advantageous inequity when cognitive processing is strongly—as opposed to weakly—limited. Findings across several different experimental paradigms support our predictions. Taken together, our findings shed light on the psychological processes underlying the intriguing interplay between egoism- and fairness-based considerations when evaluating outcomes, as well as on more general preference and adjustment processes.     

The role of sincere amends and perceived partner responsiveness in forgiveness

In a sample of 188 people currently in a romantic relationship, the authors examined the extent to which perceiving a partner as responsive and sincere in making amends relates to participants' forgiveness of a partner after a real‐life hurtful event. Specifically, it was predicted that sincere amends would be associated with greater forgiveness because it conveys that one's partner has understood and validated one's experience of the hurtful event. Results supported this mediational model. Further, exploratory analyses suggested that this meditational model is moderated by event severity and relationship satisfaction. Discussion focuses on understanding how this work might help to inform the dynamic process of forgiveness in couples.     

Seeing future success: does imagery perspective influence achievement motivation?

Imagining future success can sometimes enhance people's motivation to achieve it. This article examines a phenomenological aspect of positive mental imagery--the visual perspective adopted--that may moderate its motivational impact. The authors hypothesize that people feel more motivated to succeed on a future task when they visualize its successful completion from a third-person rather than a first-person perspective. Actions viewed from the third-person perspective are generally construed at a relatively high level of abstraction--in a manner that highlights their larger meaning and significance--which should heighten their motivational impact. Three studies in the domain of academic motivation support this reasoning. Students experience a greater increase in achievement motivation when they imagine their successful task completion from a third-rather than a first-person perspective. Moreover, mediational analyses reveal that third-person imagery boosts motivation by prompting students to construe their success abstractly and to perceive it as important.     

Effects of Family Context on Adolescents’ Psychological Problems: Moderated by Pubertal Timing,and Mediated by Self-Esteem and Interpersonal Relationships

We examined the potential mediational roles of self-esteem and interpersonal relationships that link the effect of family context on psychological outcomes in 5214 junior high school students. The moderating effects of pubertal timing were also examined. Pubertal development scores were used to measure pubertal status. Separate mediational models were examined across subgroups with different pubertal timings (i.e., early puberty, on-time puberty, and late puberty). Self-esteem and interpersonal relationships mediated the association between family context and psychological consequences. Although early-maturing adolescents tended to have more psychological problems, they were usually more strongly influenced by self-esteem than were their late-maturing counterparts. Self-esteem and interpersonal relationships were both important when dealing with adolescent psychological problems, particularly for those who mature early. Clinicians should be able to recognize these problems associated with pubertal transition and provide appropriate counseling with a focus on positive adaption to reduce adverse psychological and behavioral consequences.     

Confidence intervals for standardized linear contrasts of means

Most psychology journals now require authors to report a sample value of effect size along with hypothesis testing results. The sample effect size value can be misleading because it contains sampling error. Authors often incorrectly interpret the sample effect size as if it were the population effect size. A simple solution to this problem is to report a confidence interval for the population value of the effect size. Standardized linear contrasts of means are useful measures of effect size in a wide variety of research applications. New confidence intervals for standardized linear contrasts of means are developed and may be applied to between-subjects designs, within-subjects designs, or mixed designs. The proposed confidence interval methods are easy to compute, do not require equal population variances, and perform better than the currently available methods when the population variances are not equal.     

Friendship, perceived mattering and happiness: a study of American and Turkish college students

Although it is well established that friendship is a consistent correlate of happiness, less is known about how friendship experiences might promote happiness. The current investigation addressed this gap by testing a mediational model proposing that perceived mattering explains the association of friendship quality with happiness among college students in Turkey and the United States. An alternative model suggesting friendship quality as the mediator was also tested to enhance confidence in the proposed model. SEM analyses revealed that perceived mattering mediated the association of friendship with happiness only in the American sample. In the Turkish sample, friendship quality mediated the association between mattering and happiness. Findings highlight the importance of cross-cultural research and suggest that the underlying processes and psychological mechanisms related to the friendship-happiness link might be different in different cultures.     

Man, I feel like a woman: when and how gender-role motivation helps mind-reading

Two experiments were undertaken with 3 goals: (a) to determine whether manipulating the desirability of including empathy as part of one's gender-role identity motivates accurate mind-reading, (b) to ascertain whether target readability moderates the strength of this effect, and (c) to test whether these effects are mediated by the complexity of perceivers' inferential strategies. Participants viewed videotapes of 2 couples discussing relationship problems and attempted to infer each partner's thoughts and feelings. Both experiments demonstrated that motivation improved accuracy when male and female perceivers valued the empathy-relevant aspects of the traditional female gender role. However, as predicted, high levels of motivation facilitated the accurate reading of easy targets but not of difficult targets. Several mediational models were tested, the results of which showed that the complexity of perceivers' attributions mediated the link between motivation and mind-reading accuracy.     

The role of prior context in the comprehension of abstract and concrete sentences

Summary In two experiments the hypothesis was tested that abstract sentences become as easy to understand as concrete sentences when given appropriate prior context. Paragraph contexts and sentences followed by a comprehension question were presented in a speeded reading task. The results showed that the abstract sentences remained significantly more difficult to process than the concrete sentences in both experiments. The hypothesis that the concreteness effect is a function of differential context availability was therefore not supported. It was proposed that lexical differences and/or differences in ease of propositional integration may underlie the effect.     

Comparison of mediational selected strategies and sequential designs for preventive trials: Comments on a proposal by pillow et al.

Summary Mediational selection designs can increase the chance of finding an intervention to be statistically better than a control when compared to interventions applied to a selected subpopulation such as all children of divorce. Selection based on poor mediational variable scores creates a high expectation that many subjects will benefit because it matches a population to a given intervention strategy. It does not permit examination of the impact on other subjects nor the possibility of interventions that may be tuned to the specific needs of different subpopulations. A sequence of trials each built on the results of previous ones has the potential for extending the results obtained from a mediational selection design.     

Clarifying boundary issues in psychopathology: the role of taxometrics in a comprehensive program of structural research

Despite decades of debate, important questions about the boundaries that separate psychological disorder from normality and that distinguish 1 disorder from another remain largely unanswered. These issues pose empirical questions that may be addressed by assessing the latent structure of psychopathological constructs. Because these constructs are likely to be structurally complex, and no single statistical tool addresses all structural questions, it is proposed in this article that boundary issues be examined through programmatic research grounded in the taxometric method and elaborated by complementary analyses. The authors describe how such a program could delimit the structure of disorders and test competing explanations of diagnostic co-occurrence, emphasizing the potential to enhance the reliability and validity of assessment, maximize the power of research designs, and improve diagnostic classification.     

Patterns of continuity: a dynamic model for conceptualizing the stability of individual differences in psychological constructs across the life course

In contemporary psychology there is debate over whether individual differences in psychological constructs are stable over extended periods of time. The authors argue that it is impossible to resolve such debates unless researchers focus on patterns of stability and the developmental mechanisms that may give rise to them. To facilitate this shift in emphasis, they describe a formal model that integrates 3 developmental processes: stochastic-contextual processes, person-environment transactions, and developmental constancies. The theoretical and mathematical analyses indicate that this model makes novel predictions about the way in which test-retest correlations are structured across a wide range of ages and test-retest intervals. The authors illustrate the utility of the model by comparing its predictions against meta-analytic data on Neuroticism. The discussion emphasizes the value of focusing on patterns of continuity, not only as phenomena to be explained but as data capable of clarifying the developmental processes underlying stability and change for a variety of psychological constructs.     

Testing mediational models with longitudinal data: questions and tips in the use of structural equation modeling

R. M. Baron and D. A. Kenny (1986; see record 1987-13085-001) provided clarion conceptual and methodological guidelines for testing mediational models with cross-sectional data. Graduating from cross-sectional to longitudinal designs enables researchers to make more rigorous inferences about the causal relations implied by such models. In this transition, misconceptions and erroneous assumptions are the norm. First, we describe some of the questions that arise (and misconceptions that sometimes emerge) in longitudinal tests of mediational models. We also provide a collection of tips for structural equation modeling (SEM) of mediational processes. Finally, we suggest a series of 5 steps when using SEM to test mediational processes in longitudinal designs: testing the measurement model, testing for added components, testing for omitted paths, testing the stationarity assumption, and estimating the mediational effects.     

What counts as evidence for working memory training? Problems with correlated gains and dichotomization

The question of whether computerized cognitive training leads to generalized improvements of intellectual abilities has been a popular, yet contentious, topic within both the psychological and neurocognitive literatures. Evidence for the effective transfer of cognitive training to nontrained measures of cognitive abilities is mixed, with some studies showing apparent successful transfer, while others have failed to obtain this effect. At the same time, several authors have made claims about both successful and unsuccessful transfer effects on the basis of a form of responder analysis, an analysis technique that shows that those who gain the most on training show the greatest gains on transfer tasks. Through a series of Monte Carlo experiments and mathematical analyses, we demonstrate that the apparent transfer effects observed through responder analysis are illusory and are independent of the effectiveness of cognitive training. We argue that responder analysis can be used neither to support nor to refute hypotheses related to whether cognitive training is a useful intervention to obtain generalized cognitive benefits. We end by discussing several proposed alternative analysis techniques that incorporate training gain scores and argue that none of these methods are appropriate for testing hypotheses regarding the effectiveness of cognitive training.     

Are self-enhancing cognitions associated with healthy or unhealthy biological profiles?

Self-enhancement is variously portrayed as a positive illusion that can foster health and longevity or as defensive neuroticism that can have physiological-neuroendocrine costs. In a laboratory stress-challenge paradigm, the authors found that high self-enhancers had lower cardiovascular responses to stress, more rapid cardiovascular recovery, and lower baseline cortisol levels, consistent with the positive illusions predictions and counter to the predictions of the defensive neuroticism position. A second set of analyses, replicating the "illusory mental health paradigm" (J. Shedler, M. Mayman, & M. Manis, 1993), also did not support the defensive neuroticism hypothesis. The association between self-enhancement and cortisol was mediated by psychological resources; analyses of the cardiovascular results provided no definitive mediational pathway. Discussion centers on the potential stress-buffering effects of self-enhancing beliefs.     

The meaning of race in psychology and how to change it: a methodological perspective

The primary purpose of this article was to offer a methodological critique in support of arguments that racial categories should be replaced as explanatory constructs in psychological research and theory. To accomplish this goal, the authors (a) summarized arguments for why racial categories should be replaced; (b) used principles of the scientific method to show that racial categories lack conceptual meaning; (c) identified common errors in researchers' measurement, statistical analyses, and interpretation of racial categories as independent variables; and (d) used hierarchical regression analysis to illustrate a strategy for replacing racial categories in research designs with conceptual variables. Implications for changing the study of race in psychology are discussed.     

Culture and dialogue: Positioning,mediation or style?

Dialogicality has become a key notion in current cultural psychology. Strikingly, whereas mediational and semiotic thinkers have developed the dialogical view by emphasizing the role of psychological distancing in semiotic and dialogical processes, dialogical self-theorists following the work of Hermans remain caught up in a perspective that naively privileges non-mediated interaction. In this article I argue that both accounts lack an adequate ontological understanding of dialogicality. In looking for an alternative, I will first discuss how Bakhtin offers a spatial account of dialogicality that is quite different from the positional account proposed by DST. For an ontological explication of the deep dialogicality underlying all signification, I will then turn to Merleau-Ponty's ontology of flesh and show how it allows us to see our embodied presence as always already part of a field of divergences, a carnal intersubjectivity, by which we participate in a particular style of being. I argue that the work of Bakhtin and Merleau-Ponty allows us to recognize a primordial dialogicality in the stylized, poetic and deeply equivocal nature of human expression. This primordial dialogicality defies the logic of positioning and distancing and reveals a deeper entwinement of self and other, with different psychological and developmental implications than those of DST.