A new technique for investigating the feeling of knowing

Previous investigations of the feeling of knowing (FOK) have relied on absolute FOK judgements rather than on relative FOK judgments. This has resulted in a confounding of (1) the subject's metamemorial knowledge of nonrecalled items with (2) the subject's know/don't-know threshold. The new technique replaces the absolute FOK judgments with relative FOK judgments in which the subject generates (via paired comparisons) a FOK rank order of nonrecalled items in terms of the predicted likelihood of recognition. This new technique eliminates the aforementioned confounding, provides a richer data base, and yields separate estimates of FOK validity and FOK reliability.     

The perceived informational basis of attitudes: implications for subjective ambivalence

Three studies tested the hypothesis that when people receive persuasive messages, their perceptions of the information on which they base their attitudes can determine feelings of subjective ambivalence. Across studies, it is shown that when elaboration (e.g., need for cognition, personal relevance) is high, people have more subjective ambivalence when they perceive that they have based their attitudes on the source of a message rather than the arguments contained in that message. When elaboration is low, this effect is reversed. These findings suggest that people can assess the informational basis of their attitudes and that these assessments influence feelings of attitude ambivalence.     

The informational basis of social judgments: Memory for informative and uninformative arguments

This study investigates the encoding and retrieval of arguments in an opinion formation task. It is based on a model of opinion formation that partitions the latter process into initial encoding, elaborative encoding, integration, and decision. According to this model elaborative encoding depends on two factors: (i) the informativeness of the arguments and (ii) their thematic relatedness. Since it is reasonably well established that the likelihood of retrieving an argument is an increasing function of the amount of elaboration performed on it, the first hypothesis is straightforward, namely, that the memory for an argument will increase with its informativeness and with its thematic relatedness to other arguments. The second hypothesis assumes that by dint of their closer association with the decision, informative arguments occupy a more central position in the representation of an opinion than uninformative ones. This implies that an informative argument should be accessed and reported prior to an uninformative argument, even when differences in retrievability (i.e., probabilities of recall) are controlled. The findings were consistent with such an analysis.     

A novel technology for investigating the dynamics of infant perseverative reaching

We designed and tested a novel technology that enables us to capture the entire stream of behavior in perseverative reaching tasks. Beyond fitting the criteria of the conventional A-not-B task, the novel technology gives us better access to the core features of perseverative reaching, such as timing, behavior history, and reinforcement. The technology allows us to quantitatively manipulate reinforcement characteristics, to accurately program onsets, delays, and stimulus durations as well as locations and salience of the targets, and to automatically record the number of reaches to each target and compute timing. We did a validation study on this new technology, investigating the influence of a number of novel factors on perseverative reaching. We replicated the A-not-B phenomenon and associated developmental changes. In addition, results demonstrated that the new technology offers insights into infants' behavior beyond the first reaching action. Moreover, data collection is fully automated, yielding precise, quantitative data. Future studies using this technology will capitalize on the salient advantages of this technology to more precisely measure goal-directed actions and understand the development of reaching skill.     

O-Cam: A new paradigm for investigating the effects of ostracism

A new ostracism paradigm—O-Cam—was designed to combine the best qualities of both social ostracism (i.e., face-to-face interaction between the target and sources of ostracism) and cyber ostracism (i.e., confederatefree, highly controlled designs) paradigms. O-Cam consists of a simulated Web conference during which participants are either ostracized or included by 2 other participants whose actions, unbeknownst to the participants, are actually pretaped. The findings of preliminary studies indicate that O-Cam provides a powerful ostracism experience that yields psychological and behavioral responses that are consistent with those in other ostracism paradigms (e.g., Cyberball; Williams, 2007). Moreover, unlike in many previous ostracism paradigms, O-Cam provides researchers with the flexibility to manipulate the physical appearance and the verbal/nonbehavior of the sources of ostracism without the need for confederates.     

The development of infant intersensory perception: advantages of a comparative convergent-operations approach

Despite impressive demonstrations of human infants' intersensory capabilities over the past several decades, there has been little focus on the contributions of prenatal and postnatal experience or the specific developmental processes underlying the emergence of intersensory functioning. Research with nonhuman animals has, however, provided a number of advances in understanding early intersensory perception. The authors explore the value of a comparative, convergent-operations approach to the study of early intersensory perception and examine how this approach has highlighted the study of (a) prenatal factors, (b) brain-behavior relations, and (c) context and experience variables contributing to infants' intersensory responsiveness. Examples of how human and animal research programs can cross-fertilize one another in their attempts to understand developmental processes underlying intersensory perception are considered.     

Wheels: a new illusion in the perception of rolling objects

A new illusory effect is described which consists of a conspicuous perceptual overestimation of the speed at which a wheel rolling across an observer's visual field appears to be rotating. Wheels appear to revolve much faster than is compatible with their linear displacement. Experimental verification of the genuineness and magnitude of the effect is reported, along with a discussion of some of the variables upon which it may depend.     

Life space mapping: Preliminary results from the development of a new method for investigating counselling outcomes

Counselling outcomes are often measured in terms of standardised questionnaires. Though efficient for large numbers of participants, this method cannot capture the unique and subtle ‘shifts’ that clients often report when qualitative methods are utilised. Further, such questionnaires usually focus on the individual, missing the wider social implications of therapy. This paper presents the preliminary findings from a study that utilises the client's own perceptions of changes in their “Life Space” to establish the significance of their change process. These results are compared and contrasted with a standard outcome questionnaire and the participant's experiences of using the two methods are explored.     

Using the longitudinal Guttman simplex as a basis for measuring growth

Many difficulties inherent in the measurement of growth stem from the use of traditional measurement methodologies. The longitudinal Guttman simplex (LGS), an alternative approach based on a model of growth, is discussed in this article. The LGS has several advantages over traditional methodology. First, interindividual differences in developmental rates are a part of the model. Second, the LGS procedure can easily handle any number of occasions of measurement. Third, the LGS is suited to nonlinear as well as linear monotonic growth. Fourth, a consistency index associated with the LGS methodology, CL, indicates the extent to which cumulative, unitary development characterizes a particular latent variable. Finally, and perhaps most important, because a model of the growth undergone by the latent variable being measured is incorporated in the LGS model the resulting instruments enjoy a high level of construct validity. The LGS is limited to cumulative, unitary development; additional measurement theories are needed for other kinds of development.     

The "Perceptual Wedge Hypothesis" as the basis for bilingual babies' phonetic processing advantage: new insights from fNIRS brain imaging

In a neuroimaging study focusing on young bilinguals, we explored the brains of bilingual and monolingual babies across two age groups (younger 4-6 months, older 10-12 months), using fNIRS in a new event-related design, as babies processed linguistic phonetic (Native English, Non-Native Hindi) and nonlinguistic Tone stimuli. We found that phonetic processing in bilingual and monolingual babies is accomplished with the same language-specific brain areas classically observed in adults, including the left superior temporal gyrus (associated with phonetic processing) and the left inferior frontal cortex (associated with the search and retrieval of information about meanings, and syntactic and phonological patterning), with intriguing developmental timing differences: left superior temporal gyrus activation was observed early and remained stably active over time, while left inferior frontal cortex showed greater increase in neural activation in older babies notably at the precise age when babies’ enter the universal first-word milestone, thus revealing a first-time focalbrain correlate that may mediate a universal behavioral milestone in early human language acquisition. A difference was observed in the older bilingual babies’ resilient neural and behavioral sensitivity to Non-Native phonetic contrasts at a time when monolingual babies can no longer make such discriminations. We advance the “Perceptual Wedge Hypothesis” as one possible explanation for how exposure to greater than one language may alter neural and language processing in ways that we suggest are advantageous to language users. The brains of bilinguals and multilinguals may provide the most powerful window into the full neural “extent and variability” that our human species’ language processing brain areas could potentially achieve.     

Associations between maternal mind-mindedness and infant attachment security: investigating the mediating role of maternal sensitivity

In the last 20 years, three meta-analyses suggested that the relation between maternal sensitivity and infant attachment security was lesser in magnitude than originally believed. This led to a search for other parental behaviors likely to contribute to the development of attachment security. Based on previous theoretical propositions and empirical findings suggesting that maternal mind-mindedness may contribute to infant attachment security by favoring maternal sensitivity, the aim of this study was to examine whether sensitivity mediates the relation between maternal mind-mindedness and infant attachment security. Fifty mother-infant dyads took part in two home visits (12 months and 15 months), allowing for assessment of maternal sensitivity (T1), mind-mindedness (T1), and infant attachment (T2). The results confirmed that maternal sensitivity mediates the relation between mind-mindedness and infant attachment. The findings are discussed in light of the assessments used in this and previous studies.     

Validating a new technique for the assessment of pain behaviour

The validity of a laboratory technique involving the calibration and tolerance of an auditory stimulus, as a measure of avoidance behaviour in headache sufferers was examined. The sample consisted of 174 Ss including headache clinic, psychiatric and normal headache sufferers and psychiatric and normal controls. There were no significant differences in the sensitivity and tolerance of the clinic, psychiatric and normal headache sufferers. Sensitivity to and tolerance of the auditory stimulus allowed differentiation of headache sufferers and controls. However, the difference between ‘in-pain’ and ‘pain-free’ headache sufferers from the psychiatric and clinic samples did not reach significance. But, higher pre-sessional pain levels were associated with higher sensitivity and reduced tolerance of the stimulus. Also greater sensitivity to the stimulus was associated with decreased tolerance, i.e. quicker avoidance of it. Calibration of the stimulus and exposure to it resulted in significant increments in self-reported pain/discomfort. For the clinic headache sufferers, the relationship of tolerance of the auditory stimulus to checklist-derived measures of avoidance and complaint behaviours was also examined. The results are discussed in terms of objectives and problems in the assessment of pain-related behaviours.     

"Faces and Feelings": a projective technique for measuring young children's self-esteem

A projective type "Faces and Feelings" measure was designed for use with kindergarten and first grade children. The underlying assumption was that the technique would elicit from this age group self-perceptions of worthwhileness. The unique methodology eliminated the most pervasive problems in self-esteem measurement, and results yielded important information about the effects of significant others on young children's self-esteem. Also, feelings about home and school activities addressed the multifaceted and specificity aspect of the self-esteem construct. Differences between American and Australian children and boys and girls in how Mom, Dad, Teacher, Friend, Home, School, Holiday, Reading, Math made children feel about themselves could be identified using "Faces and Feelings."     

Average size perception and the allure of a new mechanism

In this brief response to commentaries by Ariely (2008) and Chong, Joo, Emmanouil, and Treisman (2008) on our earlier article, we highlight the two key assumptions underlying earlier claims about statistical summary representations of object size and argue that existing studies have not met either of them. We note why statistical summary representations of size are different from such representations of motion or orientation, and we emphasize the need for simulations of performance to exclude focused attention explanations for judgments of average size.