The mere exposure effect is sensitive to color information: evidence for color effects in a perceptual implicit memory test

Priming effects in perceptual tests of implicit memory are assumed to be perceptually specific. Surprisingly, changing object colors from study to test did not diminish priming in most previous studies. However, these studies used implicit tests that are based on object identification, which mainly depends on the analysis of the object shape and therefore operates color-independently. The present study shows that color effects can be found in perceptual implicit tests when the test task requires the processing of color information. In Experiment 1, reliable color priming was found in a mere exposure design (preference test). In Experiment 2, the preference test was contrasted with a conceptually driven color-choice test. Altering the shape of object from study to test resulted in significant priming in the color-choice test but eliminated priming in the preference test. Preference judgments thus largely depend on perceptual processes. In Experiment 3, the preference and the color-choice test were studied under explicit test instructions. Differences in reaction times between the implicit and the explicit test suggest that the implicit test results were not an artifact of explicit retrieval attempts. In contrast with previous assumptions, it is therefore concluded that color is part of the representation that mediates perceptual priming.     

The linear separability effect in color visual search: Ruling out the additive color hypothesis

Bauer, Jolicoeur, and Cowan (1996b, 1996c) demonstrated difficult visual search for color targets that were not linearly separable (in color space) from two distractor colors and easier search for linearly separable targets. This suggested that search is mediated by a chromatically linear discrimination mechanism (see D’Zmura, 1991). However, in those experiments, the targets that were not linearly separable fell midway between the distractor colors and thus corresponded to the admix of the distractor colors. An alternate interpretation of the results of Bauer et al. is that search was more difficult when the target corresponded to the distractor admix than when it did not. We tested this hypothesis in three experiments by contrasting conditions in which a target that was not linearly separable did or did not correspond to the admix of the distractor colors. In all cases, a target that was not linearly separable produced difficult search, demonstrating that linear separability determines search performance.     

The Beck Inventory: psychometric properties in university students

The psychometric properties of the Beck Inventory (BI), a revised, copyrighted version of the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), were investigated in 204 university students. Two-week test-retest reliability was .90, coefficient alpha was .87, concurrent validity using the BDI as the criterion was .94, and the correlation between level of depression as measured by the two instruments was .86. The mean score on the BI was significantly but only one-half point lower than that on the BDI. Individual items were all highly and significantly correlated, but a significantly lower BI mean score occurred on the Sadness, Suicidal Ideas and Insomnia items. Depression was not significantly related to demographic variables.     

A demonstration of direct access to colored stimuli following cueing by color

To test whether cueing by color can affect orienting without first computing the location of the cued color, the impact of reorienting on the validity effect was examined. In Experiment 1 subjects were asked to detect a black dot target presented at random on either of two colored forms. The forms started being presented 750 ms before the onset of a central cue (either an arrow or a colored square). In some proportion of the trials the colors switched locations 150 ms after cue onset, simultaneously with target onset. The color switch was not found to retard responses following a color cue more than following a location cue. Furthermore, it did not reduce the validity effect of the color cue: Though the validity effect of the location cue was quite larger than the validity effect of the color cue, both effects were additive with the presence/absence of a color switch. In Experiment 2, subjects were rather asked to detect a change in shape of one of the colored forms. In this case, color switch was found to affect performance even less following a color cue. The fact that across experiments, color switch did not retard neither responding nor orienting selectively in the color cue condition, indicates that when attention is set to a certain color, reorienting to a new object following color switch does not require re-computing the address of the cued color. That finding is argued to embarrass a strong space-based view of visual attention.     

The future is now: prospective temporal self-appraisals among defensive pessimists and optimists

Three studies found that prospective temporal self-appraisals can be part of defensive pessimists' strategy; they felt closer to equally distant negative than positive futures. In Study 1, defensive pessimists felt closer to future failures and reported more negative affect than those considering success. In Study 2, when manipulated negative futures were close, defensive pessimists felt bad and performed well; results suggested that viewing negative futures as close may be part of their natural strategy. Study 3 found that prospective self-appraisals influenced performances through felt preparation. Optimists did not use prospective self-appraisals (Study 1) and their performances were unaffected by manipulated temporal distance (Studies 2 and 3). Discussion centers on prospective self-appraisals and multiple strategies of defensive pessimists.     

Relative judgment seems to be the key: revisiting the Beck effect

In multiple-stimulus presentation, orientation disparity has been known to be more discriminable than disparity in line arrangement (e.g., J. Beck, 1972). The source of the effect and its locus were studied in 7 experiments. In different experiments a discrimination between an upright T and either a tilted T or an L, or a discrimination between a tilted T and an L, was required, either in a single stimulus presentation or in the context of upright Ts. Number of stimuli, location uncertainty, and adjacency between stimuli were manipulated. The results indicated that the effect is insensitive to these factors, which is incommensurate with predictions from several accounts of the effect. All the effect requires is that disparate stimuli are simultaneously presented, suggesting that relative judgment is a necessary condition for its manifestation. The effect surfaces when the task calls for procedures based on perception of homogeneity or salience.     

The structure of the Beck Hopelessness Scale: A confirmatory factor analysis in UK students

The aim of this paper was to confirm the factor structure of the 20-item Beck Hopelessness Scale in a non-clinical population. Previous research has highlighted a lack of clarity in its construct validity with regards to this population.Based on previous factor analytic findings from both clinical and non-clinical studies, 13 separate confirmatory factor models were specified and estimated using LISREL 8.72 to test the one, two and three-factor models.Psychology and medical students at Queen’s University, Belfast (n = 581) completed both the BHS and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI).All models showed reasonable fit, but only one, a four-item single-factor model demonstrated a non-significant chi-squared statistic. These four items can be used to derive a Short-Form BHS (SBHS) in which increasing scores (0-4) corresponded with increasing scores in the BDI. The four items were also drawn from all three of Beck’s proposed triad, and included both positively and negatively scored items.This study in a UK undergraduate non-clinical population suggests that the BHS best measures a one-factor model of hopelessness. It appears that a shorter four-item scale can also measure this one-factor model.     

On representationalism,common-factorism,and whether consciousness is here and now

Philosophical Studies - A strong form of representationalism says that every conscious property of every mental state can be identified with some part of the state’s representational...     

Looking forward, looking back: anticipation is more evocative than retrospection

The results of 5 experiments indicate that people report more intense emotions during anticipation of, than during retrospection about, emotional events that were positive (Thanksgiving Day), negative (annoying noises, menstruation), routine (menstruation), and hypothetical (all-expenses-paid ski vacation). People's tendency to report more intense emotion during anticipation than during retrospection was associated with a slight, but only occasionally significant, tendency for people to expect future emotions to be more intense than they remembered past emotions having been. The greater evocativeness of anticipation than retrospection was also associated with and statistically mediated by participants' tendency to report mentally simulating future emotional events more extensively than they report mentally stimulating past emotional events. The conclusion that anticipation is more evocative than retrospection has implications for research methodology, clinical practice, decision making, and well-being.     

The Beck Anxiety Inventory in nonclinical samples: Initial psychometric properties

The Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) was recently developed to assess clinical anxiety. Because one of its main features is a focus upon physiological sequelae of anxiety, the inventory may prove useful in nonclinical samples as well. The current paper provides initial psychometric properties with a nonclinical sample. Two studies are presented. The first presents scores and factor structure. A five factor solution was obtained, with one subjective and four somatic factors accounting for approximately 60% of the variance. The second study utilizes the total and factor scores to assess concordance with physiological responding. The total BAI correlated moderately with several physiological domains and with subjective distress. Factor scores were not consistently correlated with corresponding physiological domains. When subjects were divided into high- and low-anxiety groups, the relationships between self-report and physiological response increased in subjects with higher levels of anxiety. Results are discussed in terms of comparing clinical and nonclinical findings, use of the BAI in nonclinical samples, and future research.This research was supported in part by a grant to the first author from the Commission on Academic Excellence, University of Louisville.     

The underlying structure of the Beck Depression Inventory II: A multidimensional scaling approach

The purpose of the present study was to confirm Beck’s six symptom categorization of depression through the most recent version of Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II) by employing a confirmatory multidimensional scaling (MDS). This analysis indicates two independent dimensions in the BDI-II. The disturbance domain dimension relates to the domains wherein the disturbances occur, and validates Beck’s six symptom categorization dividing the items into disturbances in basic need-satisfaction, energy regulation, focused attention, regulation of emotion, motivation, and cognitive distortion in self-evaluation. The level of arousal dimension relates to how the disturbances are expressed, namely in an under-active, regular, or over-active manifestation. The MDS solution suggests 18 (6 × 3) symptom areas of depression, and may serve as a guide for constructing additional items.     

The Beck Depression Inventory as a Measure of Subjective Well-Being: A Cross-National Study

The present study examined the question whether the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), which is one of the most widely used instruments to assess depression, can be used to measure differences in subjective well-being at national level. In order to establish the meaning of depression scores at country level, the functional equivalence (i.e., similarity of meaning) of depression scores at individual and country level was examined. Studies using the BDI in normal populations from 28 countries were collected. Depression showed the same correlates at individual and country level, which supports the functional equivalence of the BDI at the two levels. BDI scores and subjective well-being were then correlated with a number of country characteristics in order to test three theories of cross-national differences in subjective well-being. Livability theory stresses the importance of objective living conditions, comparison theory focuses on relative living conditions, and folklore theory states that cross-national differences can be explained by some national trait (e.g., beliefs and values concerning happiness). Cross-national differences in depression and subjective well-being could be explained by livability theory and folklore theory. BDI scores were negatively correlated with subjective well-being and other happiness-related variables. These findings suggest that depression had the same meaning at individual and country level and that depression is an adequate measure of (a lack of) subjective well-being at country level.     

Attentional capacity is undifferentiated: concurrent discrimination of form, color, and motion

We report a series of experiments on the concurrent discrimination of form, color, and motion attributes. All tasks involved joint discrimination of attributes, and positions and were highly demanding of attention. We quantified interference between concurrent discriminations by establishing the attention-operating characteristic. Interference was indistinguishable for similar and dissimilar task combinations (form-form, color-color, motion-motion, and color-form, color-motion, motion-color, and motion-form, respectively). These results suggest strongly that different visual discriminations draw on the same attentional capacity--in other words, that the capacity of visual attention is undifferentiated.     

Interactive scaling: A demonstration

Described is one of the new techniques that interactive scaling algorithms make possible.     

Developmental reversals in false memory: now you see them, now you don't!

A developmental reversal in false memory is the counterintuitive phenomenon of higher levels of false memory in older children, adolescents, and adults than in younger children. The ability of verbatim memory to suppress this age trend in false memory was evaluated using the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm. Seven and 11-year-old children studied DRM lists either in a standard condition (whole words) that normally produces high levels of false memory or in an alternative condition that should enhance verbatim memory (word fragments). Half the children took 1 recognition test, and the other half took 3 recognition tests. In the single-test condition, the typical age difference in false memory was found for the word condition (higher false memory for 11-year-olds than for 7-year-olds), but in the word fragment condition false memory was lower in the older children. In the word condition, false memory increased over successive recognition tests. Our findings are consistent with 2 principles of fuzzy-trace theory's explanation of false memories: (a) reliance on verbatim rather than gist memory causes such errors to decline with age, and (b) repeated testing increases reliance on gist memory in older children and adults who spontaneously connect meaning across events.