Complexity,response competition,and preference

In an attempt to resolve disagreements about the events underlying repeated exposure to a stimulus and the affective consequences of these events, two experiments examined psychological complexity and response competition (two measures of the uncertainty produced by a stimulus) as related to each other and to liking and goodness of meaning ratings of Chinese characterlike stimuli. In Experiment 1, 60 undergraduates' mean latency of first free association to the stimuli (response competition) increased as a perfect monotonic function of the number of lines constituting them (psychological complexity). In Experiment 2, ratings of liking by 40 undergraduates were highest for stimuli associated with an intermediate level of uncertainty (psychological complexity and response competition). Thus it was speculated that a moderate number of stimulus exposures (reducing uncertainty to an intermediate level) is preferable to an indefinitely large number of exposures (reducing uncertainty to a minimal level). The finding of no relationship between rated goodness of stimulus meaning and uncertainty was judged to be consistent with Stang's (1974) hypothesis that characteristically observed increases in rated goodness with increasing stimulus exposures (decreasing uncertainty) are a result of subject intuitions rather than an effect of decreasing uncertainty.     

Mood and emotion in sport: a response to Jones, Mace, and Williams (2000)

Examination of the mood and performance relationship in sport has been an important line of investigation in sport psychology for over 20 years. Recent research has challenged the notion that the Profile of Mood States is the instrument of choice. It has also moved away from the notion that successful performance is associated with an 'iceberg' profile (Morgan, 1980), arguing that researchers should consider mood and emotion as distinguishable constructs (Jones, Mace, & Williams, 2000; Lane & Terry, 2000. In the present paper, I expand the discussion on mood research in sport by re-examining some of the findings of Jones, et al. in the light of recent work.     

Analyzing the analysis: a response to Wollert (2000)

In a thoughtful critique in the article preceding this one, many arguments are presented about the veracity of assumptions and conclusions I made in my 1998 publication concerning the sexual recidivism base rates for certain incarcerated sex offenders. This article responds to some of the issues raised. First, the ultimate conclusion of the preceding critique is assessed. Even when assuming the accuracy of all points made in the preceding article, an analysis described herein still demonstrates that the current U.S.A. civil commitment referral procedures "under-predict" sexual recidivism rates. Second, an inference made in the preceding critique, read as a possible implication from my article, is strongly contested. Finally, the remaining discussion responds to various other concerns that were raised. While scientific exploration of issues is typically expected to lead to occasional professional differences, a significant lack of agreement with the preceding critique is found.     

Syntactic Complexity Effects in Sentence Production: A Reply to MacDonald,Montag, and Gennari (2016)

In our article, “Syntactic complexity effects in sentence production” (Scontras, Badecker, Shank, Lim, & Fedorenko, 2015 ), we reported two elicited production experiments and argued that there is a cost associated with planning and uttering syntactically complex, object‐extracted structures that contain a non‐local syntactic dependency. MacDonald et al. ( 2016 ) have argued that the results of our investigation provide little new information on the topic. We disagree. Examining the production of subject versus object extractions in two constructions across two experimental paradigms—relative clauses in Experiment 1 and wh‐questions in Experiment 2—we found a strikingly similar pattern: reliable differences in latency and word durations, as well as in rates of disfluencies, signaling a greater cost associated with planning and uttering the syntactically more complex object extractions. MacDonald et al. reject that interpretation, namely that the differences we observed in the production of subject versus object extractions demonstrate asymmetric production difficulties. Here we address the concerns they raise by clarifying confusion and presenting novel experimental evidence in support of our original claims.     

Age and sex differences in paranormal beliefs: a response to Vitulli, Tipton, and Rowe (1999)

Vitulli, Tipton, and Rowe (1999) report evidence of age and sex differences in the strength of paranormal beliefs. An alternative interpretation of their data is offered in terms of differential item functioning. It is suggested that respondents' interpretation of paranormal belief test items may vary with age and sex, and that such differences in the strength with which such beliefs are endorsed has not been conclusively established by Vitulli, et al.     

Socio-economic status,social class and memory performance: a critical response to Herrmann and Guadagno (1997)

Herrmann and Guadagno (1997) reviewed evidence concerning the relationship between memory performance and socio-economic status (SES). As a measure of social stratification, SES is narrow and ethnocentric, and it ignores the role of social prestige, power and status. The selection of research for quantitative analysis and the measure of effect size used by Herrmann and Guadagno are criticized. Across the available corpus of studies, there is a highly significant relationship between SES and memory performance, but this varies systematically from one task to another and between different research studies using the same task. This indicates that the effects of SES on memory are mediated by the content and the context of learning. Copyright © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A misleading review of response bias: comment on McGrath, Mitchell, Kim, and Hough (2010)

In the May 2010 issue of Psychological Bulletin, R. E. McGrath, M. Mitchell, B. H. Kim, and L. Hough published an article entitled "Evidence for Response Bias as a Source of Error Variance in Applied Assessment" (pp. 450-470). They argued that response bias indicators used in a variety of settings typically have insufficient data to support such use in everyday clinical practice. Furthermore, they claimed that despite 100 years of research into the use of response bias indicators, "a sufficient justification for [their] use… in applied settings remains elusive" (p. 450). We disagree with McGrath et al.'s conclusions. In fact, we assert that the relevant and voluminous literature that has addressed the issues of response bias substantiates validity of these indicators. In addition, we believe that response bias measures should be used in clinical and research settings on a regular basis. Finally, the empirical evidence for the use of response bias measures is strongest in clinical neuropsychology. We argue that McGrath et al.'s erroneous perspective on response bias measures is a result of 3 errors in their research methodology: (a) inclusion criteria for relevant studies that are too narrow; (b) errors in interpreting results of the empirical research they did include; (c) evidence of a confirmatory bias in selectively citing the literature, as evidence of moderation appears to have been overlooked. Finally, their acknowledging experts in the field who might have highlighted these errors prior to publication may have prevented critiques during the review process.     

Words, hemispheres, and processing mechanisms: A response to Marsolek and Deason (2007)

Ellis, Ansorge and Lavidor (2007) [Ellis, A.W., Ansorge, L., & Lavidor, M. (2007). Words, hemispheres, and dissociable subsystems: The effects of exposure duration, case alternation, priming and continuity of form on word recognition in the left and right visual fields. Brain and Language, 103, 292–303.] presented three experiments investigating the effects of exposure duration and format (normal vs mixed or alternating case) on the recognition of words presented in the left and right visual fields. The experiments were conducted within the framework of ‘dissociable neural subsystems theory’ developed by Marsolek and colleagues. Marsolek and Deason (2007) [Marsolek, C.J. & Deason, R.G. (2007). Hemispheric asymmetries in visual word-form processing: Progress, conflict, and evaluating theories. Brain and Language, 103, 304–307.] offer some reflections on our paper, including alternative interpretations of some of our findings. We respond to those reflections in this reply.     

Launching a Dream to Foster a New Consciousness

I had an unexpected encounter on a far island off the coast of Australia with a group of young people. These young people wanted to escape from the modern world and they inspired my conviction: that we must do our best to reshape our world and make it a place acceptable for the younger generation. I realized that it is the dominant consciousness of an epoch that creates the structures and the practices of an epoch. We must now address the task of evolving or co-evolving our world's dominant consciousness. The fear and insecurity produced by this current dominant consciousness has created humanity's current sad condition. The Giordano Bruno GlobalShift University declares its mission to be a “state of the art” global institution. It has the clear-cut objective of fostering a new consciousness, defeating ignorance, and providing an affordable world-class education that permits economically less privileged people to take an active part in the construction of a better world. Our first tenet is the bio-epistemological “non- subordinate” horizontal model of education. This tenet is joined with our commitment to a cross-cultural social, interdisciplinary, and stereo-cognitive interaction-based academic platform. It is a platform that can empower young people to attain an innovative holistic view of the world and of themselves.     

Correction to smith, hood, and gilchrist (2010)

Reports an error in "Probabilistic cuing in large-scale environmental search" by Alastair D. Smith, Bruce M. Hood and Iain D. Gilchrist (Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 2010[May], Vol 36[3], 605-618). This article contained typographical errors in the first paragraph under Experiment 2, Results. The first Analysis of Variance conducted on reaction time data reported incorrect degrees of freedom. This does not affect the interpretation of the article. The corrected paragraph is as follows. "Search times (see Figure 3) were significantly faster for targets in the rich side of the display (mean difference 6.57 s, SD 4.22), F(1, 17) 42.9, p .001. There was also a main effect of block, F(1, 17) 5.73, p .05, and a Probability X Block interaction, F(1, 17) 11.0, p .005, reflecting the slower overall search times for sparse trials in the second block and indicating a larger cuing effect in Block 2 (mean difference 8.10 s, SD 4.93) than Block 1 (mean difference 5.05 s, SD 4.31)." (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2010-08037-004.) Finding an object in our environment is an important human ability that also represents a critical component of human foraging behavior. One type of information that aids efficient large-scale search is the likelihood of the object being in one location over another. In this study we investigated the conditions under which individuals respond to this likelihood, and the reference frames in which this information is coded, using a novel, large-scale environmental search paradigm. Participants searched an array of locations, on the floor of a room, for a hidden target by pressing switches at each location. We manipulated the probability of the target being at a particular set of locations. Participants reliably learned target likelihoods when the possible search locations were kept constant throughout the experiment and the starting location was fixed. There was no evidence of such learning when room-based and body-based reference frames were dissociated. However, when this was combined with a more salient perceptual landmark, an allocentric cuing effect was observed. These data suggest that the encoding of this type of statistical contingency depends on the combination of spatial cues. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

Rejoinder to Irwin's (2000) "age and sex differences in paranormal beliefs: a response to Vitulli, Tipton, and Rowe (1999)"

Issues in making an independent test of Irwin's alternative interpretation of Vitulli, Tipton, and Rowe's data are presented.     

Political goals versus scientific truths: a response to Jackson (2003)

Three fundamental issues separate Jackson's (2003) methodological views from mine. One, whereas he believes an absolute moral view can prevail in a democracy, I assume moral pluralism is an inevitable byproduct of an open society. Two, Jackson feels that psychology can identify a correct moral position, whereas I postulate natural science psychology is only capable of revealing the empirical consequences of competing social policies and their moral implications. Three, Jackson espouses a politically active psychology that from my perspective is antithetical to a democratic and scientific ethic. In sum, Jackson's coupling of science with political advocacy will lead to a mistrust of psychology that will deny a democracy the opportunity to base its social policies on reliable psychological information.     

God,Information, and Complexity: From Descriptive to Explorative Metaphysics

Abstract

Information and complexity have become central concepts in our contemporary worldview. On this background, it is discussed in which sense concepts of information and complexity may apply to theology proper. While the inherited axiom of divine simplicity forbids complexity and plurality as features of divine nature, an argument is developed for the presence of information and complexity in divine life. Three forms of information are proposed as relevant for a contemporary concept of God: Information as difference (Information1), information as form and relational structure (Information2) and semantic information (Information3). It is argued that features of these forms of information must be internal to divine life, if God can properly be said to facilitate and value the complex world of creation, to allow embodied creates to participate in divine life, and to communicate with creatures. In this light, the notion of divine simplicity will have to be redefined as the divine self-identity throughout temporal flux.     

Support Needs and Satisfaction in Foster Care: Differences Between Foster Mothers and Foster Fathers

Family foster care is a vulnerable youth care intervention. The recruitment and retention of foster parents causes concerns. Offering support to foster mothers and foster fathers can augment the satisfaction and the intent of continuing fostering. Clearer understanding of the support needs of foster parents and their satisfaction with the foster care placement can lead to the identification of ways to improve the support offered. Although differences between foster mothers and foster fathers regarding their support needs and satisfaction can be expected, knowledge about these differences is nonexistent. Differences in support needs and satisfaction between 86 foster mothers and foster fathers who reported on 120 foster children were examined. No differences between foster mothers and foster fathers were found. Both foster parents had higher support needs regarding dealing with the birth parents compared to support needs in handling problem behavior of the foster child. For both foster mothers and foster fathers satisfaction with collaboration with the foster care worker, satisfaction with recognition experienced and satisfaction with reunification of the foster child, did not differ across these aspects. Satisfaction of foster parents can be increased by keeping in balance the rights and needs of birth parents and those of foster parents. Acknowledging that foster parents are experts on their foster child and consulting them on important decisions will also contribute significantly to their satisfaction.     

Gender, ethnicity, and career trajectories: a comment on Woodward (2010)

Woodward (2010) argued that Maria Rickers-Ovsiankina, Eugenia Hanfmann, and Tamara Dembo constituted a group of Jewish emigré psychologists who received substantial help in America from a "Jewish network" of patronage. This comment focuses on the historiographic problems and pitfalls of essentialized ethnic identification. There was no evidence that Maria Rickers-Ovsiankina was a Jew or that Eugenia Hanffman, raised Russian Orthodox, identified herself as a Jew, in contrast to Tamara Dembo, who did so. We argue that these women were part of an active network of Gestaltists, topologists, and Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues leaders, and that any help that they received may be explained by the shared theoretical and disciplinary outlook of these groups as opposed to a "Jewish network."