Cuing consumerism: situational materialism undermines personal and social well-being

Correlational evidence indicates that materialistic individuals experience relatively low levels of well-being. Across four experiments, we found that situational cuing can also trigger materialistic mind-sets, with similarly negative personal and social consequences. Merely viewing desirable consumer goods resulted in increases in materialistic concerns and led to heightened negative affect and reduced social involvement (Experiment 1). Framing a computer task as a "Consumer Reaction Study" led to a stronger automatic bias toward values reflecting self-enhancement, compared with framing the same task as a "Citizen Reaction Study" (Experiment 2). Consumer cues also increased competitiveness (Experiment 3) and selfishness in a water-conservation dilemma (Experiment 4). Thus, the costs of materialism are not localized only in particularly materialistic people, but can also be found in individuals who happen to be exposed to environmental cues that activate consumerism-cues that are commonplace in contemporary society.     

Appearance feedback in intimate relationships: The role of self-verification and self-enhancement

To better understand how body image operates within the context of intimate relationships, we investigated women's responses to appearance feedback from an intimate partner. Participants (N = 192) imagined receiving feedback from their partner that was either consistent with their own appearance self-view (i.e., self-verifying), more positive (i.e., self-enhancing), or less positive (i.e., devaluing), and then provided their affective and cognitive reactions. As expected, women's perceptions of their own appearance moderated their reactions. Women with more negative self-views felt happier with enhancing feedback, but thought that it meant their partner understood them less well. They also felt less happy when they received verifying feedback, but felt more understood by their partners. Thus, women with body image dissatisfaction may find themselves stuck in the “cognitive-affective crossfire” reacting ambivalently whether their partner enhances their appearance or confirms their negative self-views. Further examination of partners’ actual feedback is needed.     

Cultural differences in self-verification: The role of naïve dialecticism

This research presents the first evidence of cultural differences in self-verification and the role of naïve dialecticism in mediating these differences. Chinese, Asian-American, and non-Asian American students completed a series of personality tests, and were presented with bogus feedback that was either self-consistent or self-discrepant, and either positive or negative. Whereas non-Asians self-verified (i.e., tended to exhibit resistance), mainland Chinese and Asian-American participants tended to adjust their self-views when they received (either positive or negative) feedback that contradicted their prevailing self-conceptions. Mediated moderation analyses showed that naïve dialecticism, mediated cultural differences in self-verification.     

Neurocognitive Functioning in AD/HD,Predominantly Inattentive and Combined Subtypes

The Predominantly Inattentive (PI) and Combined (CB) subtypes of AD/HD differ in cognitive tempo, age of onset, gender ratio, and comorbidity, yet a differentiating endophenotype has not been identified. The aim of this study was to test rigorously diagnosed PI, CB, and typical children on measures selected for their potential to reveal hypothesized differences between the subtypes in specific neurocognitive systems (anterior vs. posterior attentional systems) and processes (arousal vs. activation). Thirty-four CB and 26 PI children meeting full DSM-IV criteria for subtype both in school and at home, without confounding reading disability or emotional disorder, were enrolled along with 20 typically developing children. Neurocognitive functions measured included attention, inhibitory control, working memory, learning, and executive functions. Tasks included the Stroop, Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, Continuous Performance Test (CPT). Buschke Selective Reminding Test, ad the Tower of London (TOL), as well as instruments developed by Posner and Sternberg, and tasks assessing the impact on reaction time of [corrected] varying preparatory intervals and stimulus/response complexity. After co-varying for IQ, subtypes differed primarily on measures of impulsivity during tests of vigilance (CPT) and executive function (TOL), with the CB group showing greater impulsivity than both other groups. In addition, the PI group showed worse performance than CB and control groups on the WISC-III Processing Speed Index. Whether analyzed with or without an IQ co-variate, there was no support in the data for hypothesized differences between subtypes in functioning of the anterior vs. posterior attentional systems, nor in involvement of arousal vs. activation processes. The results indicate that the PI and CB subtypes are best differentiated by ratings, observations and tests of cognitive tempo and behavioral impulsivity. Neuropsychological methods have yet to identify critical neuropsychological [corrected] substrates of these differences.     

Contextual cues in selective listening

Two messages were presented dichotically and subjects were asked to “shadow” whatever they heard on one ear. Somewhere in the middle the two passages were switched to the opposite ears. Subjects occasionally repeated one or two words, at the break, from the wrong ear, but never transferred to it for longer than this. The higher the transition probabilities in the passage the more likely they were to do this. One explanation might be that the “selective filter” (Broadbent, 1958) acts by selectively raising thresholds for signals from the rejected sources rather than acting as an all-or-none barrier.     

Sex differences in dichotic listening

The present study quantified the magnitude of sex differences in perceptual asymmetries as measured with dichotic listening. This was achieved by means of a meta-analysis of the literature dating back from the initial use of dichotic listening as a measure of laterality. The meta-analysis included 249 effect sizes pertaining to sex differences and 246 effect sizes for the main effect of laterality. The results showed small and homogeneous sex differences in laterality in favor of men (d=0.054). The main effect of laterality was of medium magnitude (d=0.609) but it was heterogeneous. Homogeneity for the main effect of laterality was achieved through partitioning as a function of task, demonstrating larger asymmetries for verbal (d=0.65) than for non-verbal tasks (d=0.45). The results are discussed with reference to top-down and bottom-up factors in dichotic listening. The possible influence of a publication bias is also discussed.     

Component problems in dichotic listening

The experiments reported examined monitoring for semantically defined targets whilst concurrently shadowing (Experiment I) or listening silently (Experiment II). The word lists for monitoring were either visual or auditory. Monitoring and shadowing accuracy showed less interference when presentation was bimodal than when it was dichotic. However, monitoring latency and recognition memory for shadowed material did not show this effect. It is argued that these data reveal the existence of a number of different sources of potential difficulty in dichotic listening situations and the nature of these is discussed.     

Processing Speed in Children With Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder,Inattentive Type

Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is among the most common and most often reconceptualized neurobehavioral disorders of childhood. In the most recent DSM-IV, a primarily inattentive subtype of ADHD (AD) has again been identified. This study explores the neuropsychological profile of this group of children. Eighty-two children referred for school-related problems participated. Twenty-five met criteria for AD; 52 met criteria for reading disability (RD); 9 were comorbid for RD and AD. AD children performed poorly on measures of information processing speed. Children with comorbid AD/RD were distinguishable from those with RD on speed of processing measures only. Vulnerability to information processing load may be at the root of many of the behavioral manifestations of AD.     

Attentional strategies in dichotic listening

A person can attend to a message in one ear while seemingly ignoring a simultaneously presented verbal message in the other ear. There is considerable controversy over the extent to which the unattended message is actually processed. This issue was investigated by presenting dichotic messages to which the listeners responded by buttonpressing (not shadowing) to color words occurring in the primary ear message while attempting to detect a target word in either the primary ear or secondary ear message. Less than 40% of the target words were detected in the secondary ear message, whereas for the primary ear message (and also for either ear in a control experiment), target detection was approximately 80%. Furthermore, there was a significant negative correlation between buttonpressing performance and secondary ear target-detection performance. The results were interpreted as being inconsistent with automatic processing theories of attention.     

Sex differences in listening comprehension

In order to examine the effect of sex of the speaker on listening comprehension in a public speaking situation, 60 male and 60 female subjects viewed either a male or female speaker presenting a talk on either a masculine (chess), feminine (interior decorating), or neutral (snow skiiing) topic. The results supported the hypotheses that when a male speaks he is listened to more carefully than a female speaker, even when she makes the identical presentation. No differences were found when the topic was biased towards one sex; males were still recalled better than females. The above relationships were also true for male and female subjects; both recalled information more accurately from male speakers than from female ones. Rating of informativeness of the presentation showed no difference for sex of the speaker; but effectiveness ratings of the speaker indicated that while both male and female subjects rated male speakers equally effective, the same was not true for the female speakers. Male subjects rated the female speakers significantly more effective than they did male speakers, whereas female subjects rated male and female speakers equally effective.This article is based in part on the first author's master's thesis, submitted to the Graduate School, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, under the direction of the second author. This research was supported in part by the Center for Creative Leadership, Greensboro, North Carolina. A portion of this paper was presented at the 23rd Southeastern Psychological Association Convention, Hollywood, Florida, May 1977.     

Fostering group identification and creativity in diverse groups: the role of individuation and self-verification

A longitudinal study examined the interplay of identity negotiation processes and diversity in small groups of master's of business administration (MBA) students. When perceivers formed relatively positive impressions of other group members, higher diversity predicted more individuation of targets. When perceivers formed relatively neutral impressions of other group members, however, higher diversity predicted less individuation of targets. Individuation at the outset of the semester predicted self-verification effects several weeks later, and self-verification, in turn, predicted group identification and creative task performance. The authors conclude that contrary to self-categorization theory, fostering individuation and self-verification in diverse groups may maximize group identification and productivity.     

Stereotype threat strengthens automatic recall and undermines controlled processes in older adults

The threat of being judged stereotypically (stereotype threat) may impair memory performance in older adults, thereby producing inflated age differences in memory tasks. However, the underlying mechanisms of stereotype threat in older adults or other stigmatized groups remain poorly understood. Here, we offer evidence that stereotype threat consumes working memory resources in older adults. More important, using a process-dissociation procedure, we found, for the first time, that stereotype threat undermines the controlled use of memory and simultaneously intensifies automatic response tendencies. These findings indicate that competing models of stereotype threat are actually compatible and offer further reasons for researchers and practitioners to pay special attention to age-related stereotypes during standardized neuropsychological testing.     

Response Style Differences in the Inattentive and Combined Subtypes of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

This study examined potential differences between the inattentive and combined ADHD subtypes using laboratory tasks assessing behavioral inhibitory processes. Seventy-five children completed two tasks of behavioral inhibition believed to isolate different processes: the cued reaction time task (CRT), a basic inhibition task, and the go/no-go task (GNG), a complex inhibition task that incorporates motivational contingencies. Three groups of participants were identified, including ADHD/Inattentive (n = 17), ADHD/Combined (n = 37), and comparison (n = 21). Results indicated that rather than showing behavioral inhibition deficits, the ADHD/I children appeared overly inhibited, as evidenced by slower reaction times across the two tasks and significantly higher errors of omission in the GNG task. Additionally, the ADHD/I children did not demonstrate cue dependency effects on the CRT task, suggesting that they were failing to incorporate relevant information before making a response. The sluggish and inhibited performance of the ADHD/I group challenges the idea that it is a subtype of ADHD.     

Children's recall strategies in dichotic listening

Normal adults spontaneously adopt different recall strategies in reporting dichotic material presented at different rates. A channel by channel or ear order is used with the faster rate of input and a pair by pair or temporal order is used with the slower rate of input. The purpose of the present report is to study the frequency of the different orders of report in children as a function of the rate of input of dichotic stimulation. Twenty-four normal children, 9–10 years of age, were given the dichotic listening task under three rate conditions. The children used different recall strategies as a function of rate of input in the same manner as that reported for adults. In addition, the order of presentation of the different rates of input was found to influence the relative frequency of the different recall strategies. A significant positive correlation was found between intelligence and the frequency of use of only the temporal recall strategy in its appropriate (slow) rate condition.     

Dichotic listening pattern in conduction aphasia

This paper reports a finding of hemispheric brain asymmetry for speech in short-gestation infants (mean gestational age = 36 weeks). Using a new measure—degree of reduction in limb tremors following exposure to speech stimuli compared to two control groups, one hearing orchestral music, the other no patterned stimuli—we found that speech disproportionately affected right limb movements. It is not clear whether the effect is due to asymmetries in cortical or subcortical processing. This provides evidence against the notion that brain specialization for language functions necessarily appears over time; rather, specialization for some functions (e.g., speech reception) must be present at birth.     

The syntagmatic-paradigmatic shift in dichotic listening

Children at two age levels, 6 to 7 years and 9 to 10 years, listened to pairs of words presented dichotically to the left and right ear either simultaneously or in immediate succession. Their task was to report what they heard after each pair. The experimental pairs involved either syntagmatic relations (e.g., bird-fly) or paradigmatic relations (table-chair). The younger children correctly identified more syntagmatic than paradigmatic pairs (using control pairs as a base) while the older children correctly identified more paradigmatic pairs. There was no difference between associated and nonassociated pairs. The results are taken to mean that pragmatic, serial relations dominate the semantic organization of younger children and that logical, hierarchical relations make their impact later in the course of development.     

Being known, intimate, and valued: global self-verification and dyadic adjustment in couples and roommates

We contend that close relationships provide adults with optimal opportunities for personal growth when relationship partners provide accurate, honest feedback. Accordingly, it was predicted that young adults would experience the relationship quality with relationship partners who evaluated them in a manner consistent their own self-evaluations. Three empirical tests of this self-verification hypothesis as applied to close dyads were conducted. In Study 1, young adults in dating relationships were most intimate with and somewhat more committed to partners when they perceived that partners evaluated them as they evaluated themselves. Self-verification effects were pronounced for those involved in more serious dating relationships. In Study 2, men reported the greatest esteem for same-sex roommates who evaluated them in a self-verifying manner. Results from Study 2 were replicated and extended to both male and female roommate dyads in Study 3. Further, self-verification effects were most pronounced for young adults with high emotional empathy. Results suggest that self-verification theory is useful for understanding dyadic adjustment across a variety of relational contexts in young adulthood. Implications of self-verification processes for adult personal development are outlined within an identity negotiation framework.