Computers will become increasingly important for psychological assessment: not that there's anything wrong with that!

Though one can expect that computer programs will become increasingly important for psychological assessment, current automated assessment programs and statistical-prediction rules are of limited value. Validity has not been clearly established for many automated assessment programs. Statistical-prediction rules are of limited value because they have typically been based on limited information that has not been demonstrated to be optimal and they have almost never been shown to be powerful. Recommendations are made for building and evaluating new computer programs. Finally, comments are made about the ethics of using computers to make judgments.     

More than belief,but not more than belief and desire

Manuel A. Vásquez’ More Than Belief: A Materialist Theory of Religion paints a rich picture of what a ‘non-reductive materialist framework for the study of religion’ would look like. Although it receives strong motivation from the inability of the predominant meta-approaches of theorizing religion to take seriously a range of materially grounded religious phenomena, it suffers somewhat from a lack of independent and autonomous argumentation. This article explores a convergence between Vásquez’ main points and the basic elements of one of the most influential positions within philosophical semantics – namely the semantic holism of Donald Davidson. Because Davidson's holism (assuming its correctness) provides constraints on all forms of theorizing, the fact that Vásquez’ position, unlike the ones he critiques, conforms to those constraints lends it a degree of rational presumption.     

Underpredicted pain disrupts more than correctly predicted pain, but does not hurt more

One of the explanations for the negative effects of underpredicted aversive experiences is that they have more impact than correctly predicted aversive experiences. In a laboratory experiment 40 normal female subjects executed an auditory discrimination task. Subjects were randomly assigned to a correct information condition and an underprediction information condition. After ten trials (baseline) subjects were informed that they would receive some painful (correct prediction) or non-painful tingling (underprediction) stimuli during the discrimination task. Starting just before five of the following 20 discrimination trials, 2 s of painful electrical stimulation was given. Subjects rated sensations and painfulness of the electrical stimulation, subjective anxiety, and degree of distraction from the task, after each pain stimulus. Reaction times of the discrimination task and heart rate were measured. Underprediction information resulted in lower pain ratings, but stronger heart rate responses and higher disruption on the discrimination task, compared to correct information. This suggests that while underpredictions of pain do not hurt more, disruption on primary tasks and physiological impact are higher. Underpredicted pain has more impact than correctly predicted pain, not because it hurts more, but because it conveys inherent danger information.     

Perceptible goals matter, but let's not overdo it!

F. Mechsner's (2004) Imaginative experiments underscored the importance of perceptual-cognitive factors in motor control. However, his account of motor planning is in need of precise operational definitions of its key concepts; the importance of neuromuscular constraints and coordinative stability is not acknowledged in his view on motor execution; and his account of motor learning is challenged by both empirical and anecdotal observations.     

Pronominalization and discourse coherence,discourse structure and pronoun interpretation

Two self-paced reading-time experiments are reported that examine the time course of pronoun interpretation processes based on local discourse structure and on world knowledge. The characterization of local discourse structure is based on recent work on centering, which provides a specific formulation of how the ways in which sentences make reference to common entities determines the coherence of discourse segments and how discourse structure influences interpretation of ambiguous pronouns. The results of the first experiment show that readers generate a default interpretation of a pronoun based on features of local discourse structure, and that that default interpretation is later confirmed or overridden by knowledge-based processes. The results of the second experiment show that local discourse structure continues to influence pronoun interpretation even when the semantic information that ultimately compels interpretation occurs before the pronoun. These results support the view that processes acting on local discourse structure play a powerful role in guiding language comprehension.     

Processing impairments in OCD: it is more than inhibition!

The study aimed to address a significant gap in the literature on inhibition impairments in OCD, by concurrently studying facilitation and inhibition processes and the effect of threat on these twin mechanisms. Participants were 20 persons with symptomatic OCD, 11 with remitted OCD, 20 with panic disorder and 20 normal control participants. Participants were required to respond to words that were either neutral or personally threatening, which during an immediately preceding trail, were responded to as targets (facilitation) or inhibited as non-targets (inhibition). OCD participants displayed greater facilitation and reduced inhibition, differences that were related to their diagnostic status but unrelated to symptomatic status. Threat had no effect on facilitation, but exacerbated inhibition problems in the symptomatic OCD and panic groups. This research suggests that underlying differences in both facilitation and inhibition, combined with influences of activated threat-schema on inhibition may play a role in the development and maintenance of OCD.     

When more is less: failure to compress discourse with re-telling in normal ageing

When young adults tell the same story repeatedly, their narratives become progressively more concise. Although impaired discourse production has been reliably demonstrated in the elderly, changes in narrative production with repetition have not been investigated in this cohort. Thirty young (aged 18-49 years, M=28.77, SD=9.73) and thirty elderly (aged 65+ years, M=73.57, SD=6.80) adults completed a discourse production task involving narrative construction using an eight-frame cartoon. Narratives were repeated 4 consecutive times. Variables analysed were narrative duration, word count and fluency (words/sec). For all variables the compression index for the elderly group was significantly lower than that for young participants. Further, compared to their younger counterparts, elderly adults were less able to improve the cohesion of their narratives with repetition. These findings suggest that the elderly have a reduced capacity to generate and refine discourse representations.     

Exaggeration is harder than understatement, but practice makes perfect!

Previous research on the fakeability of the Implicit Association Test (IAT) yielded inconsistent results. The present study simultaneously analyses several relevant factors: faking direction, type of instructions, and practice. Furthermore, it takes baseline individual differences into account. After a baseline assessment in a self-esteem IAT without faking instructions (t0), participants in the faking conditions then (t1) faked high or low scores without being provided with recommended strategies on how to do so (i.e., individual strategies). At t2 and t3, they were asked to fake the IAT after having received information on recommended faking strategies. At t4, faking direction was reversed. Without the recommended strategies, faking high scores was not possible, but faking low scores was. With the recommended strategies, participants needed additional practice to fake high scores. When faking directions were reversed, participants were successful without additional practice, suggesting a transfer in faking skills. In most of the faking attempts, faking success was moderated by individual differences in baseline implicit self-esteem. This suggests that the complex interplay of factors influencing faking success should be taken into account when considering the issue of fakeability of the IAT.     

Disability and participation: It's about us but still without us!

Participation is often espoused as a strategy to promote inclusion, social justice and equality. Exactly how to facilitate participation in practice is often not explicated, nor are the challenges or issues highlighted. By drawing on interview data, the first aim of this paper is to identify the key barriers to participation in an organizational planning activity as experienced by 12 disabled and non‐disabled staff and board members in a small community‐based disability advocacy organization. The second aim is to draw upon Jim Ife's principles of participation to further analyse the factors that hinder and enable participation in organizations. Reported barriers to participation were categorized at individual, interpersonal and organizational levels of analysis, and included a lack of skills and competence, interpersonal conflicts, poor resourcing and ad hoc processes. The importance of understanding the dynamic interplay of individual and structural factors, valuing different forms of participation and having participatory structures and processes embedded in organizational settings are all highlighted. This study illustrates that, even in an organization that is specifically attuned to meeting the needs of disabled people, there is still considerable exclusion and institutional discrimination. Strategies to promote participation within an organizational context may include providing sufficient time for reflection and support, and opportunities for board members to learn how to take part in constructive planning activities and to develop their strengths. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Ouch! – a logotherapeutic discourse of butch and tattooed in China

• This is a study of a small group of self‐identified butch lesbians in their consumption of tattoos. The emotion‐laden experience of negotiating social symbolism and self‐identity (Elliott, 1997 ) in the context of hyperrealism (Baudrillard, 1983 ) has given rise to what Frankl ( 1984 ) has described as “existential vacuums.” Frankl suggested that these “existential vacuums” can be filled with a higher level of meaning. An artifact of consumption, the tattoo, is used by the informants in this study as a component of bricolage in the DIY process of constructing a new self (Elliott, 1997 ), with the entire process of being tattooed – particularly the hyper‐stimulation and pain of the procedure – further “existentializing” a new existence of “imagined masculinity.” This new existence that transcends suffering and assigns new meaning to life is the principle idea of Frankl's logotherapy (Frankl, 1984 ; Barnes, 2000 ; Blair, 2004 ).

Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Systemic Framework for Trauma-Informed Schooling: Complex but Necessary!

In most classrooms in most schools, there are students who have suffered complex trauma who would benefit from a system-wide, trauma-informed approach to schooling. Despite growth in Australian schools adopting trauma-informed practice, education systems are yet to embrace a whole-of-organization approach, unlike other systems supporting children and adolescents. This is likely due to multifarious complexities inherent in, and specific to, the schooling system. This article reviews early findings from current research in Queensland, Australia that is exploring requirements for a system-wide approach to trauma-informed schooling. Findings highlight that achieving systemic, trauma-informed schooling is complex but necessary and has potential to improve outcomes for students and those aiming to educate them. Findings have implications for schooling and education systems worldwide.     

The Fluency Amplification Model: Fluent stimuli show more intense but not evidently more positive evaluations

Processing fluency plays a large role in forming judgments, as research repeatedly shows. According to the Hedonic Fluency Model, more fluently processed stimuli are rated more affectively positive than less fluently processed stimuli. Most research documenting such findings uses neutral or positive stimuli with low complexity, thus any potential impact of initial stimulus valence cannot be tested. In the present study, 60 IAPS stimuli ranging from very negative to very positive valence were rated on liking by participants. Processing fluency was manipulated through perceptual priming (7 ms). Results of Experiment 1 (N = 35) support the prediction of the Hedonic Fluency Model, but only for stimuli with an initially positive valence. However, when negative stimuli were processed more fluently, they were rated as more negative than when processed less fluently. Experiment 2 (N = 39) showed that enhancing the accessibility of the stimulus content (via prolonging the prime duration to 100 ms) cannot account for the results of Experiment 1, since Experiment 2 failed to replicate the findings obtained in Experiment 1. Potential factors influencing affective evaluation of negative stimuli are discussed. A model is offered for the reinterpretation of processing fluency as an amplifying factor for evaluative judgment.