Why do young infants fail to search for hidden objects?

Recent evidence indicates that infants as young as 3.5 months of age understand that objects continue to exist when hidden (Baillargeon, 1987a; Baillargeon & DeVos, 1990). Why, then, do infants fail to search for hidden objects until 7 to 8 months of age? The present experiments tested whether 5.5-month-old infants could distinguish between correct and incorrect search actions performed by an experimenter. In Experiment 1, a toy was placed in front of (possible event) or under (impossible event) a clear cover. Next, a screen was slid in front of the objects, hiding them from view. A hand then reached behind the screen and reappeared holding the toy. The infants looked reliably longer at the impossible than at the possible event, suggesting that they understood that the hand's direct reaching action was sufficient to retrieve the toy when it stood in front of but not under the clear cover. The same results were obtained in a second condition in which a toy was placed in front of (possible event) or behind (impossible event) a barrier. In Experiment 2, a toy was placed under the right (possible event) or the left (impossible event) of two covers. After a screen hid the objects, a hand reached behind the screen's right edge and reappeared first with the right cover and then with the toy. The infants looked reliably longer at the impossible than at the possible event, suggesting that they realized that the hand's sequence of action was sufficient to retrieve the toy when it stood under the right but not the left cover. A control condition supported this interpretation. Together, the results of Experiments 1 and 2 indicate that by 5.5 months of age, infants not only represent hidden objects, but are able to identify the actions necessary to retrieve these objects. The implications of these findings for a problem solving explanation of young infants' failure to retrieve hidden objects are considered.     

Why do lie-catchers fail? A lens model meta-analysis of human lie judgments

Decades of research has shown that people are poor at detecting lies. Two explanations for this finding have been proposed. First, it has been suggested that lie detection is inaccurate because people rely on invalid cues when judging deception. Second, it has been suggested that lack of valid cues to deception limits accuracy. A series of 4 meta-analyses tested these hypotheses with the framework of Brunswik's (1952) lens model. Meta-Analysis 1 investigated perceived cues to deception by correlating 66 behavioral cues in 153 samples with deception judgments. People strongly associate deception with impressions of incompetence (r = .59) and ambivalence (r = .49). Contrary to self-reports, eye contact is only weakly correlated with deception judgments (r = -.15). Cues to perceived deception were then compared with cues to actual deception. The results show a substantial covariation between the 2 sets of cues (r = .59 in Meta-Analysis 2, r = .72 in Meta-Analysis 3). Finally, in Meta-Analysis 4, a lens model analysis revealed a very strong matching between behaviorally based predictions of deception and behaviorally based predictions of perceived deception. In conclusion, contrary to previous assumptions, people rarely rely on the wrong cues. Instead, limitations in lie detection accuracy are mainly attributable to weaknesses in behavioral cues to deception. The results suggest that intuitive notions about deception are more accurate than explicit knowledge and that lie detection is more readily improved by increasing behavioral differences between liars and truth tellers than by informing lie-catchers of valid cues to deception.     

What's love got to do with it? Why some marriages succeed and others fail

This essay summarizes a 13‐year longitudinal study carried out in the United States that challenges conventional wisdom about courtship and the early marital roots of connubial distress and divorce. The study traced relationships from courtship, to the early years of marriage, to parenthood (for most), and to divorce (for some). The essay describes the germination of the study, how it was implemented, and what it reveals about why some marriages succeed and others fail. Couples' courtship and early marital experiences foreshadow: (a) whether they stay married or divorce, (b) whether they sustain satisfying unions if their marriage lasts, and (c) how quickly marriages that end in divorce break apart. Mutually satisfying marriages are differentiable from those that fail in that they both promise marital consanguinity and deliver on the promise.     

Why do schools of thought fail? Neo-Freudianism as a case study in the sociology of knowledge

A full account of the social production of knowledge requires an understanding of how schools of thought fail, as well as succeed. This paper offers a sociology of knowledge analysis of the collapse of neo-Freudianism as a separate school of psychoanalysis and influential intellectual current. While the existing literature stresses personal conflicts between Karen Horney, Erich Fromm and Harry Stack Sullivan as a major cause of the failure of cultural psychoanalysis, my analysis highlights the sect-like nature of Freudian institutes, the professionalizing dynamics of American psychoanalysis, the contribution of the celebrity-dominated book market and culture, and the highly controversial nature of Erich Fromm's writings and intellectual activity. Neo-Freudianism is conceptualized as a hybrid system that is a combination of a literary phenomena, intellectual movement, faction of a sect, theoretical innovation and therapy. This analysis of hybrid intellectual systems raises larger sociology of knowledge questions about schools of thought and intellectual movements. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Why do we slow down after an error? Mechanisms underlying the effects of posterror slowing

People often become slower in their performance after committing an error, which is usually explained by strategic control adjustments towards a more conservative response threshold. The present study tested an alternative hypothesis for explaining posterror slowing in terms of behavioural interferences resulting from error monitoring by manipulating stimulus contrast and categorization difficulty in a choice reaction time task. The response-stimulus interval (RSI) was either short or long, using a between-subject (Experiment 1) and a within-subject design (Experiment 2). Posterror slowing was larger and posterror accuracy lower in short than in long RSI situations. Effects of stimulus contrast disappeared in posterror trials when RSI was short. At long RSIs, stimulus contrast was additive with posterror slowing. The results support the idea that at least two mechanisms contribute to posterror slowing: a capacity-limited error-monitoring process with the strongest influence at short RSIs and a criterion adjustment mechanism at longer RSIs.     

The insistence of vision: Why do people look at a salient stimulus when it signals target absence?

Researchers and practitioners across many fields would benefit from the ability to predict human search time in complex visual displays. However, a missing element in our ability to predict search time is our ability to quantify the exogenous attraction of visual objects in terms of their impact on search time. The current work represents an initial step in this direction. We present two experiments using a quadrant search task to investigate how exogenous and endogenous factors influence human visual search. In Experiment 1, we measure the oculomotor capture—or the tendency of a stimulus to elicit a saccade—of a salient quadrant under conditions in which the salient quadrant does not predict target location. Despite the irrelevance of quadrant salience, we find that subjects persist in making saccades towards the salient quadrant at above-chance levels. We then present a Bayesian-based ideal performer model that predicts search time and oculomotor capture when the salient quadrant never contains the search target. Experiment 2 tested the predictions of the ideal performer model and revealed human performance to be in close correspondence with the model. We conclude that, in our speeded search task, the influence of an exogenous attractor on saccades can be quantified in terms of search time costs and, when these costs are considered, both search time and search behaviour reflect a boundedly optimal adaptation to the cost structure of the environment.     

Why do we take drugs? From the drug-reinforcement theory to a novel concept of drug instrumentalization

The drug-reinforcement theory explains why humans get engaged in drug taking behavior. This theory posits that drugs of abuse serve as biological rewards by activating the reinforcement system. Although from a psychological and neurobiological perspective this theory is extremely helpful, it does not tell us about the drug-taking motives and motivation of an individual. The definition of drug instrumentalization goals will improve our understanding of individual drug-taking profiles.     

Why do people tend to overpredict pain? On the asymmetries between underpredictions and overpredictions of pain

After an underpredicted painful experience people tend to expect increased pain levels for a considerable time, despite disconfirmatory experiences. Underpredictions also tend to raise long-lasting fear and increased physiological responding. Overpredicted pain does not have such dramatic effects. What are the reasons for this asymmetry? Evidence for and against the hypothesis that underpredicted pain hurts more than correctly predicted pain, and that overpredictions result from a tendency to avoid the extra aversiveness of underpredictions, is reviewed. Based on recent experiments this explanation is rejected, and alternative explanations are discussed. It is reasoned that the most plausible explanation is that the organism automatically infers danger from an underprediction, because of the loss of predictability into the dangerous direction (i.e. more pain). Elevated expectancy and fear levels are the result of this. A modified stimulus-comparator model that accounts for the differential effects of both types of incorrect predictions is suggested. In contrast to previous models, such a model hypothesizes: (i) differential processing of under- and overpredictions; and (ii) different processes involved in the influence of expectations on subjective and non-subjective pain responses.     

Why do we want to be healthy? Medicine, autonomous individualism, and the community of faith

Understanding health as empowerment to meet particular goals, we can distinguish a goal of Enlightenment individualism from a goal of creaturely dependent, as affirmed by the Christian community of faith. So argues Dennis Sansom, who traces many of the ethical problems in medical treatment to Enlightenment assumptions about health, and who therefore calls us back to distinctively Christian principles as the foundations for our conception of health and for ethical medical practice.     

Why do individuals respond to fraudulent scam communications and lose money? The psychological determinants of scam compliance

Why do so many people all over the world, so often, react to completely worthless scam offers? In two questionnaire studies, one of which included the distribution of an experimentally manipulated simulated scam, we investigated differences between respondents who did and did not report past compliance with scams. We found that the principal differences were in their response to very high‐value incentives, in the extent to which they reacted with positive emotions to the thought of winning a large prize, in their reliance on signs of official authority, and in their self‐confidence. The first two of these can be regarded as forms of visceral processing. Some of these differences suggested a dispositional difference between victims and non‐victims.     

Why do people care about procedural fairness? The importance of belongingness in responding and attending to procedures

The present research tests an important motivational explanation for people's concern with procedural fairness by considering the influence of people's belongingness needs. We predicted that those individuals with a strong need to belong would care more about procedural fairness information and thus they would process that information more carefully, as compared to individuals with a weak need to belong. In Study 1, the need to belong moderated the relationship between the opportunity for voice and self‐evaluations. In Study 2, the need to belong moderated the relationship between the opportunity for voice and organizational identification among employees of a multinational healthcare company. Study 3 extends this finding by demonstrating that people with a strong need to belong engage in more careful and systematic processing of procedural fairness information. Together, these findings provide important insight into understanding the motivations that underlie reactions to procedural fairness. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Why do superiors attend to negative stereotypic information about their subordinates? Effects of power legitimacy on social perception

Power can be defined as control over other people's outcomes. Using this definition, we explored the impact of power on attentional processes involved in impression formation. Because powerful individuals may want to maintain and justify their position, powerful participants should pay particular attention to negative stereotype‐consistent information about their subordinates. In contrast, powerless participants should devote their attention to stereotype‐inconsistent information in an attempt to increase their control over the social context. Study 1 directly manipulated control by assigning participants to the role of leader or subordinate in a task group. Results showed that, compared to subordinates, leaders devoted more attention to negative stereotypic attributes. Study 2 manipulated the legitimacy of power and replicated the pattern found in Study 1 but only when power was illegitimate. Our findings suggest that the experience of power can be associated with feelings of threat, especially when power is illegitimate, thereby orienting impression‐formation processes toward information likely to maintain the existing social structure. We discuss our results in the context of current work on motivated social cognition, social identity, and legitimisation. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Toward an understanding of students’ allocation of study time: Why do they decide to mass or space their practice?

Two recent studies have led to discrepant findings regarding students’ decisions to mass or space practice of to-be-learned items: Son (2004) reported that participants chose to mass practice of difficult items more than that of easy items, whereas Benjamin and Bird (2006) reported the opposite. To resolve this apparent discrepancy, we had participants study items during an initial trial and then decide whether the next study trial would be massed or spaced. Across three experiments, we systematically varied factors that differed across these studies. In general, the participants more often chose to space than to mass practice, but they did favor massed practice when items were very difficult to learn. Moreover, although previous hypotheses implicated metamemory causes for these effects, the present results indicate that nonmetamemory causes are also responsible, such as using spaced practice as a default and deciding to mass practice for items that had not been fully perceived during an initial study trial.     

Why do aggressive movies make people aggressive? an attempt to explain short-term effects of the depiction of violence on the observer

An explanation-approach within the frame of a universal and integrating theory of aggression is favored for understanding the effects of exposure to violence. Kornadt's Motivation Theory of Aggression is used to generate several hypotheses concerning the effects of aggressive movies on a viewer's expectancy-value-cognitions and these are tested in an experiment. The experiment suggests that aggressive stimulation is able to change aggression-related expectancy-value-cognitions in an aggression-facilitating direction. Based on these results, an attempt is made to explain increases in the aggression of viewers in terms of the Motivation Theory of Aggression. © 1993 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Why is it so hard to do my work? The challenge of attention residue when switching between work tasks

In many jobs, employees must manage multiple projects or tasks at the same time. A typical workday often entails switching between several work activities, including projects, tasks, and meetings. This paper explores how such work design affects individual performance by focusing on the challenge of switching attention from one task to another. As revealed by two experiments, people need to stop thinking about one task in order to fully transition their attention and perform well on another. Yet, results indicate it is difficult for people to transition their attention away from an unfinished task and their subsequent task performance suffers. Being able to finish one task before switching to another is, however, not enough to enable effective task transitions. Time pressure while finishing a prior task is needed to disengage from the first task and thus move to the next task and it contributes to higher performance on the next task.     

Why do citizens want to keep refugees out? Threats,fairness and hostile norms in the treatment of asylum seekers

A social identity framework was employed to understand why people support the exclusionary treatment of refugee claimants (‘asylum seekers’) in Australia. Over and above individual difference effects of social dominance orientation and individuals' instrumental threat perceptions, insecure intergroup relations between citizens and asylum seekers were proposed to motivate exclusionary attitudes and behaviour. In addition, perceived procedural and distributive fairness were proposed to mediate the effects of social identity predictors on intergroup competitiveness, serving to legitimise citizens' exclusionary behaviours. Support for these propositions was obtained in a longitudinal study of Australians' social attitudes and behaviour. Small and inconsistent individual‐level effects were noted. In contrast, after controlling for these variables, hostile Australian norms, perceived legitimacy of citizen status, and threatening socio‐structural relations were strongly and consistently linked to intentions to support the harsh treatment of asylum seekers, and exclusionary attitudes and action at Time 2. Moreover, perceived procedural and distributive justice significantly mediated these relationships. The roles of fairness and intergroup socio‐structural perceptions in social attitudes and actions are discussed. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Predictors of time to remission from depression in primary care patients: do some people benefit more from positive life change than others?

The authors examined the role of personality, social support, and coping strategies and their interaction with positive life change (PLC) in influencing time to remission from depression in 86 depressed primary care patients (69% women, mean age = 36.6 years), who were followed for 3.5 years. Diagnostic information was obtained by the Present State Examination (J. K. Wing, J. Cooper, & N. Sartorius, 1974), and life change by the Life Events and Difficulties Schedule (G. W. Brown & T. O. Harris, 1978). The association of PLC and other predictors with the time to remission was studied by means of Cox regression. PLC reduced time to remission in women, but not in men. Other predictors that expedited remission were low severity of premorbid difficulties, high self-esteem, and a tension-reducing coping style. Neuroticism modified the effect of PLC in that the remission forward bringing effect of PLC was stronger for highly neurotic people. The results suggests that women and psychologically vulnerable persons benefit most from PLC.     

“Why would you want to do that work?” The positive impact on therapists of working with child victims of sexual abuse in Ireland: a thematic analysis

Abstract

Research on the impact on psychotherapists of working with trauma has typically focused on negative impact and protective strategies and supports for therapists working in this field, such as self-care strategies and supervision. Yet many clinicians speak of the rewarding and fulfilling experiences of working with those who have been sexually abused. This study explored the positive impact of working with children who have been sexually abused in a sample of psychotherapists in Ireland. Unstructured interviews were conducted with nine female therapists who work in a specialist sexual abuse service with child victims of sexual abuse. An inductive thematic analysis identified four key themes: “the struggle to talk about the positive impact”, “professional satisfaction from helping children”, “learning life lessons from children” and “the magical connection that happens in therapy”. The findings show that, despite therapists’ tendency to think about negative impact, when encouraged to do so they described finding the work professionally rewarding, experiencing an enhancement of their own attitudes and lives through learning from the children they worked with and feeling uplifted within the therapeutic relationship with the child. Suggestions are offered for future research that may provide a broader understanding of the positive impact of this work.     

Why do Women get Depressed and Men get Drunk? An Examination of Attributional Style and Coping Style in Response to Negative Life Events Among Canadian Young Adults

Gender differences in alcohol consumption and depressive symptoms are well known. This study focused on the associations of gender with attributional style, coping style, and negative life events in explaining these differences. The association of gender with each of the predictor and outcome variables was examined. One hundred eight (51 men, 57 women) undergraduate university students, ages 18–21, completed validated measures of depression, alcohol consumption, attributional style, coping style, and negative life events. Participants reported mild-moderate levels of depressive symptoms, similar to comparable samples. In contrast, alcohol consumption was lower than expected. Depressive symptoms were associated with negative events and rumination among both men and women. Pessimism and wine consumption were correlated with depression among women only. Although men consumed more alcohol than did women, a gender difference in depressive symptoms was not found. Potential implications of these findings are discussed.