Dissimilarity and attraction: when difference makes a difference.

Students in 93 university classes described themselves and their instructors on personality tests measuring traits relevant (ascendancy and personal relations) and irrelevant (sociability and cautiousness) to teaching skill. Dissimilarity (instructor being higher than student) on relevant trait dimensions was hypothesized to be instrumental for student satisfaction with an instructor's role performance. When students were classified as similar or dissimilar to their instructors on the personality dimensions, those most attracted to their instructors were those dissimilar on relevant (but not irrelevant) traits. The dissimilarity finding was not an artifact of differences in skill of instructor nor of differences in students' perceptions of their instructors' traits. A three-dimensional system was devised to specify when similarity and dissimilarity should promote attraction.     

Performance-approach and performance-avoidance goals: when uncertainty makes a difference

Performance-avoidance goals (the desire to avoid performing more poorly than others do) have been shown to have consistently deleterious effects on performance but the effects of performance-approach goals (trying to outperform others) are more complex. Two studies examine uncertainty as a moderator of the effect of performance-approach goals on performance. Experiment 1 shows that manipulated performance-approach goals lead to better performance than do performance-avoidance goals in the absence of uncertainty about performance but when participants learn that a coactor disagreed with them about problem solutions, creating uncertainty, performance-approach goals do not differ from performance-avoidance goals in their effect on performance. Experiment 2 shows that uncertainty also moderates the effects of self-set performance-approach goals. Moreover, the same dynamic occurs with another kind of uncertainty: negative competence feedback.     

Inviting witnesses to speculate: effects of age and interaction on children's recall

Inviting speculation has been found to increase children's false recall. In this study, kindergartners and third graders saw a clown perform actions alone or in interaction with a child. Two weeks later, the speculation group recalled all actions and was asked to speculate on half the actions. The control group recalled all actions without speculating. Four weeks after the show, all children recalled all actions again. The speculation group gave more false answers to the speculated items than the control group. Surprisingly, older children tended to report as many if not more false responses than younger children, regardless of speculation. In the speculation group, there were fewer false answers for interactions than actions, but false answers did not differ across observation types in the control group. Finally, speculation did not affect free and cued recall differentially.     

Comparative visual search: a difference that makes a difference

In this article we present a new experimental paradigm: comparative visual search. Each half of a display contains simple geometrical objects of three different colors and forms. The two display halves are identical except for one object mismatched in either color or form. The subject's task is to find this mismatch. We illustrate the potential of this paradigm for investigating the underlying complex processes of perception and cognition by means of an eye-tracking study. Three possible search strategies are outlined, discussed, and reexamined on the basis of experimental results. Each strategy is characterized by the way it partitions the field of objects into "chunks." These strategies are: (i) Stimulus-wise scanning with minimization of total scan path length (a "traveling salesman" strategy), (ii) scanning of the objects in fixed-size areas (a "searchlight" strategy), and (iii) scanning of object sets based on variably sized clusters defined by object density and heterogeneity (a "clustering" strategy). To elucidate the processes underlying comparative visual search, we introduce besides object density a new entropy-based measure for object heterogeneity. The effects of local density and entropy on several basic and derived eye-movement variables clearly rule out the traveling salesman strategy, but are most compatible with the clustering strategy.     

The effect of a prior cognitive interview on children's acceptance of misinformation

This research examined whether a Cognitive interview facilitates correct recall in children aged 4 to 5 and 9 to 10 years, and whether a Cognitive interview given before post‐event misinformation reduces children's reporting of suggestions on subsequent memory tests. Children were presented with an event followed the next day by a Cognitive or a Memorandum interview. Children were then read a post‐event summary containing misleading suggestions. The next day all children were given both standard test and modified forced‐choice cued‐recall tests. The free recall phase of the Cognitive interview elicited the greatest number of correct details. Age differences were found such that 9‐ to 10‐year‐old children's reports were more accurate and more complete than those of the 4‐ to 5‐year‐olds. More correct person, action and object details were reported in a Cognitive interview. Misinformation effects were found in both age groups on the standard test whereas on the modified test such an effect was only found in the 4‐ to 5‐year‐olds. Children's reporting of suggestions was unaffected by prior interview. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effects of a knowledge base manipulation on children's recall

Abstract

Developmental researchers have demonstrated the potent role of a knowledge base on children's memory performance. However, the only studies to experimentally assess a causal connection between children's knowledge and memory have failed to find such connection (DeMarie-Dreblow, 1991; Muir-Broaddus, Rorer, Branden, & George, 1995). In this study, we extended the length of training relative to earlier studies with samples of first- and seventh-grade children, incorporating knowledge training into their school curriculum. Both groups of children displayed an increase in knowledge as a result of training and corresponding significant improvements in recall, consistent with a causal relation between knowledge and memory. Although we believe that some of the benefits for the older children were associated with improvements in strategic organization, most of the gains, for both the older and younger children, could be attributed to item-specific effects of knowledge on recall.     

Automatic and intentional processes in children's recognition memory: the reversed misinformation effect

This study investigated the contribution of automatic and intentional memory processes to 5‐ and 6‐year‐old children's suggestible responses in a reversed misinformation paradigm. The temporal order of the conventional eyewitness paradigm was altered such that children were initially presented with a pre‐event narrative containing misinformation that was either read to them or was self‐generated in response to semantic and linguistic cues, and the following day were presented with a witnessed event in the form of a picture story. Children then completed a standard forced‐choice recognition memory test under two instruction conditions. In the inclusion condition children were reminded about the presentations of the pre‐event narrative and the original story and asked to chose the witnessed event item. In the exclusion condition children were instructed to exclude pre‐event suggestions. Suggestibility effects were found with the magnitude of such effects differentially affected by the encoding of misleading suggestions and test instructions. In the exclusion condition, children were more likely to correctly reject suggestions that were ‘self‐generated’. Both automaticity and intentional recollection contributed to children's suggestible responding. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Variations on a technique: enhancing children's recall using narrative elaboration training

The current study examined first, whether the positive effects demonstrated by the Narrative Elaboration Technique (NET) could be further enhanced when coupled with mental reinstatement of context (MR), prior to interview, and second, compared the efficacy of the NET at a two‐week delay and a nine‐month delay. In Study 1, 47 children took part as a class in a staged event about safety. Two weeks later they received a single training session, and the following day were interviewed with either the NET (n = 16), NET + MR (n = 17), or in a control condition (n = 14). Children trained with the NET reported approximately twice as much correct information, and were more accurate, than a control group who did not receive NET training, although the combination of the NET + MR did not result in a further significant enhancement of recall. In Study 2, 22 children took part in the safety event, and nine months later received a single training session, and were interviewed the following day with either the NET (n = 11), or in a control condition (n = 11). Children who received the NET training reported more correct information than those who did not. The practical applications of the NET and its variations are discussed. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Event frequency and children's suggestibility: a study of cued recall responses

Research examining the effect of repeated experience on children's suggestibility for particular kinds of information has produced differing results. In one study, responses to recognition questions revealed heightened suggestibility for variable details in children who repeatedly experienced an event compared to children who experienced an event once. In other studies, no such effect was found with cued recall. In this study, 4–5‐year old children engaged in one or four play sessions. Children were later given a biasing interview wherein half of the details were incorrectly represented. Children were then given a final memory test using free and cued recall prompts that was preceded by one of three instruction types: no special instructions, moderate instructions, or opposition instructions. Children in the repeated‐event condition were more suggestible than those in the single‐event condition, regardless of instructions. No significant differences in suggestibility were found across instructions conditions. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effects of drawing on children's item recall

In four experiments, we used item recall tasks to investigate recent claims that young children's event recall can be facilitated by drawing. In Experiments 1 to 3, children of ages 5 to 8 years were tested 4 h after presentation for recall of a set of 25 items that had been presented in groups on a colored, segmented board. In Experiment 1, recall was enhanced by replacement of the objects on the board as they were recalled, but not by drawing them. In Experiments 2 and 3, drawing the board and objects concurrently with or just prior to verbal recall not only failed to facilitate recall, but significantly reduced the number of items reported by 5- to 6-year-olds. In Experiment 4, drawing again impaired recall of items that had been presented as paired associates. Overall, results indicate that under some conditions drawing can impair children's recall rather than facilitate it, as reported in several recent studies.     

When mitigation evidence makes a difference: effects of psychological mitigating evidence on sentencing decisions in capital trials

Little empirical research has addressed the effects of psychological or psychosocial evidence on sentencing decisions. The present study found that death-qualified mock jurors were more likely to sentence a defendant to death without mitigating evidence than in a case with mitigating evidence present. Mock jurors were less likely to assign a death sentence in cases that contained one of the following types of mitigating evidence: The defendant was (i) diagnosed with schizophrenia, not medicated, and suffered from severe delusions and hallucinations, (ii) drug addicted and high at the time of the murder, (iii) diagnosed as borderline mentally retarded during childhood, or (iv) severely physically and verbally abused by his parents during childhood.     

Effects of contextual cues in recall and recognition memory: The misinformation effect reconsidered

Research in semantic word list‐learning paradigms suggests that presentation modality during encoding may influence word recognition at test. Given these findings, it is argued that some previous misinformation effect research might contain methodologies which are problematic. Misleading information groups typically receive erroneous information in written narratives, which may be further impeded by written tests. Results may therefore be explained by misinformation or encoding specificity. In two experiments, participants received restated, neutral, and misleading post‐event information through auditory or written modalities. Participants' recognition and recall of critical details about the source event were tested. In a recognition test using the standard testing procedure, there were no condition differences for post‐event information presented via an auditory modality. However, for post‐event information presented in the text modality, recognition performance was more accurate for restated information relative to neutral information, which in‐turn was better than the misled condition. Using the modified testing procedure, the differences were again limited to the text condition. Better performance was evident in the restated condition relative to the average of the neutral and the misled conditions, and there was no difference in performance between the neutral and the misled conditions. Using a recall test, however, there was no effect of modality. Memory was significantly better for restated information than for the average of the neutral and the misled conditions and poorer in the misled condition relative to the neutral condition. Results are discussed in terms of the effects of contextual cues at test, and methodological and interpretational limitations associated with previous research.     

The endurance of children's working memory: a recall time analysis

We analyze the timing of recall as a source of information about children’s performance in complex working memory tasks. A group of 8-year-olds performed a traditional operation span task in which sequence length increased across trials and an operation period task in which processing requirements were extended across trials of constant sequence length. Interword pauses were longer than are commonly found in immediate serial recall tasks yet shorter than for reading span. These pauses increased with the demands of recall, decreased across the output sequence, and were to some extent predictive of scholastic ability. Overall, timing data illustrate that recall in working memory tasks involves subtle processes of item access rather than simple readout of information from an immediate store.     

The difference between t and z and the difference it makes

Tests of the null hypothesis for comparisons involving sample means use the t test when the conditions of the z test cannot be met. The 2 tests have different rationales and can lead to different conclusions regarding significance. In the present study, the authors compared the properties of t and z in simulation runs. The differences in the results are a result of fluctuations in the t test sample variances that do not exist in the z test, and those differences lead to differences in designating the significance of comparisons.     

Weathering the storm: children's long-term recall of Hurricane Andrew

Children who experienced a highly stressful natural disaster, Hurricane Andrew, were interviewed within a few months of the event, when they were 3-4 years old, and again 6 years later, when they were 9-10 years old. Children were grouped into low, moderate, or high stress groups depending on the severity of the experienced storm. All children were able to recall this event in vivid detail 6 years later. In fact, children reported over twice as many propositions at the second interview as at the first. At the initial interview, children in the high stress group reported less information than children in the moderate stress group, but 6 years later, children in all three stress groups reported similar amounts of information. However children in the high stress group needed more questions and prompts than children in the other stress groups. Yet children in the high stress group also reported more consistent information between the two interviews, especially about the storm, than children in the other stress groups. Implications for children's developing memory of stressful events are discussed.     

When the method makes a difference: Antagonistic effects on “automatic evaluations” as a function of task characteristics of the measure

Researchers often employ implicit measures as dependent variables to investigate processes of attitude formation and change. In such studies, experimentally induced differences are typically interpreted as reflecting change in automatic evaluations. We argue that experimentally induced effects on implicit measures may not always reflect genuine changes in evaluative responses, but can be driven by the mechanisms underlying the measurement procedure. In line with this assumption, the present research shows that these mechanisms can produce opposite effects of the same experimental manipulation for otherwise equivalent implicit measures. These results indicate that merely observing experimental effects on implicit measures does not allow direct inferences regarding changes in automatic evaluations. Instead, psychological interpretations of such effects hinge upon the mechanics of how a given measurement procedure responds to variations in the context. Implications for research using implicit measures are discussed.     

Pilgrims sailing the Titanic: Plausibility effects on memory for misinformation

People rely on information they read even when it is inaccurate (Marsh, Meade, & Roediger, Journal of Memory and Language 49:519–536, 2003), but how ubiquitous is this phenomenon? In two experiments, we investigated whether this tendency to encode and rely on inaccuracies from text might be influenced by the plausibility of misinformation. In Experiment 1, we presented stories containing inaccurate plausible statements (e.g., “The Pilgrims’ ship was the Godspeed”), inaccurate implausible statements (e.g., . . . the Titanic), or accurate statements (e.g., . . . the Mayflower). On a subsequent test of general knowledge, participants relied significantly less on implausible than on plausible inaccuracies from the texts but continued to rely on accurate information. In Experiment 2, we replicated these results with the addition of a think-aloud procedure to elicit information about readers’ noticing and evaluative processes for plausible and implausible misinformation. Participants indicated more skepticism and less acceptance of implausible than of plausible inaccuracies. In contrast, they often failed to notice, completely ignored, and at times even explicitly accepted the misinformation provided by plausible lures. These results offer insight into the conditions under which reliance on inaccurate information occurs and suggest potential mechanisms that may underlie reported misinformation effects.     

Linguistic context and children's recall in a probe word task

A probe word task was used to test first-, third-, and fifth-grade children's recall of words in varying linguistic contexts. Consistent with expectations based on short-term memory considerations, words that occurred in meaningful sentence contexts were better recalled than those appearing in strings of unrelated words, and words that appeared toward the end of the sentence or string were better recalled than those occurring toward the beginning. At the same time, the effects of prior text on recall, seen clearly in tasks used in constructive memory research, were not present in this short-term memory task. These findings suggest that while within-sentence semantic relational and syntactic information may be used for partial analysis while material is still in working memory, this state does not permit access to already analyzed information in prior text.The authors express appreciation to Richard Schwartz, Ronnie Wilbur, and Harlan Schweer for their suggestions throughout the course of the study.