What do we know about psycholinguistic effects?

Identifying clear and unequivocal psycholinguistic effects for lexical retrieval tasks has been the aim of a significant proportion of recent research activity. Debates have erupted concerning the existence or otherwise of particular effects on particular lexical tasks. Here, it is suggested that the reason for these debates is that researchers exercise choice in what variables they consider in their analysis. It is further illustrated that methods that have been employed for comparing the size of these effects between tasks can only lead to inconclusive results. It is suggested that psycholinguistic data may be better analysed using structural equation modelling methodologies. An example of such an approach is presented.     

What do we know about psycholinguistic effects?

Identifying clear and unequivocal psycholinguistic effects for lexical retrieval tasks has been the aim of a significant proportion of recent research activity. Debates have erupted concerning the existence or otherwise of particular effects on particular lexical tasks. Here, it is suggested that the reason for these debates is that researchers exercise choice in what variables they consider in their analysis. It is further illustrated that methods that have been employed for comparing the size of these effects between tasks can only lead to inconclusive results. It is suggested that psycholinguistic data may be better analysed using structural equation modelling methodologies. An example of such an approach is presented.     

What do we really know about witness preparation?

Witnesses often meet with an attorney or witness preparation specialist before trial to review, discuss, and sometimes modify the substance and delivery of their anticipated testimony. This process is commonly referred to as witness preparation. During witness preparation, witnesses are taught to use effective testimony delivery skills (e.g., verbal and nonverbal communication skills) so that they will be perceived as being credible and persuasive in the courtroom. Although social scientists know much about communication skills, credibility, and persuasion, few published studies have attempted to determine whether or not these factors can be modified through witness preparation training. The present article reviews the psychological literature pertaining to witness preparation and makes recommendations for needed witness preparation research.     

What do we know about how best to assess counsellor competence?

Issues of assessment of counsellor competence are becoming increasingly important as counselling becomes more professionalized and recognizable as a distinct profession. There is, however, a lack of systematic research into competence assessment in this field. The existing literature is discussed in terms of the issues involved in employing different sources of assessment, such as trainers, tutors, managers, supervisors, external assessors, clients, self and peers. Techniques of assessment are reviewed, including questionnaires, video and audiotapes, role play, examinations, learning diaries and computer simulations. Some suggestions are offered for increasing the validity of assessment judgements.     

What do mind readers know and what do we know about mind readers?

In this commentary, I raise various questions about Kim and Harris's fascinating findings. I ask what kind of knowledge children expect telepathic individuals to have, who children might consider to be good mind readers, why children value telepathy, and how puzzled children are by telepathy. I suggest potential ways to address some of these questions and end by reiterating the importance of probing individual differences in scepticism and credulity.     

Conceptualization in the pigeon: What do we know?

This article reviews studies on conceptual behaviour in the pigeon that have been conducted over the past four decades. These studies reveal a variety of definitions and procedures employed in the assessment of this behaviour, a reflection of its multifaceted nature. Overall, pigeons have been found capable of categorizing a wide variety of static and moving natural and artificial stimuli. They have also demonstrated learning of abstract or relational concepts, even though such concepts seem to be more challenging. More recently, pigeons have also been shown to be capable of conceptualization as reflected in the ability to form functional or contingency classes (Lea, 1984), and some preliminary findings point to the possibility that pigeons can exhibit the more demanding equivalence classes (Sidman, 1990) that manifest themselves in the formal properties of reflexivity, symmetry, and transitivity emerging from conditional discriminations, when adequate procedures are employed. Available evidence now seems to suggest that functional and equivalence classes are closely related, but more work is needed to specify the nature of this relationship. At this point, it seems safe to conclude that language may not be necessary for conceptualization, including equivalence learning. Taken together, the findings of this review reveal learning abilities in the pigeon far beyond simple discrimination or categorization, although it is not yet well understood how this learning is achieved. Memorization of individual stimuli, featural analysis, and formation of prototypes have all been suggested as strategies utilized by pigeons in perceptual categorization tasks, while abstraction has been posited in explaining pigeons' relational concept learning. The reinforcement contingency has more recently been offered as a possible mechanism underlying equivalence learning. More broadly, the review illustrates how a hybrid of psychological and biological approaches can be employed in animal experimentation to tackle complex questions and enhance our understanding of behaviour and cognition.     

What do we know about what we cannot remember? Accessing the semantic attributes of words that cannot be recalled

Two experiments examined access to the semantic attributes of words that participants failed to retrieve. The results indicated access to all 3 dimensions of the semantic differential--evaluation, potency, and activity, as revealed by attribute judgments and by the nature of the commission errors made. There was no evidence for superior access to the emotional-evaluative dimension, inconsistent with what may be expected from the claimed primacy of emotion. In comparison with complete recall, partial recall exhibited a slower rate of forgetting and a stronger tendency to elicit know rather than remember responses. The results were discussed in terms of the processes that lead to partial recall and in terms of the possibility that the affective primacy hypothesis does not apply to memory retrieval.     

What do infants know about continuous quantity?

We investigated infants' sensitivity to amount of continuous quantity and to change in amount of continuous quantity. Using a habituation procedure, Experiment 1 examined whether 6-month-old infants can distinguish between different amounts of liquid in a container. Infants looked significantly longer at a novel quantity than at the familiar quantity. Using a violation-of-expectation paradigm, Experiment 2 examined whether 9-month-old infants expect a change in amount when liquid is added to a hidden container which is already one-fourth full of liquid. Infants looked significantly longer at the impossible event than at the possible event. These findings indicate that infants are sensitive to amount, calling into question claims that infants have a quantitative mechanism which is exclusive to number.     

Children's response to community violence: What do we know?

This article presents a framework for understanding the developmental significance of violence-related trauma in the lives of young children. It emphasizes the importance of the distinction between acute and chronic trauma. Acute trauma is more readily dealt with through “psychological first aid” and a “therapy of reassurance.” Chronic trauma requires a more systematic reconstruction of the child's “social map” of the world. The socioeconomic and demographic correlates of violent trauma predict an accumulation of risk factors in the child's life that compounds the problem of developmental disability. The problem community violence poses for the child must be understood in the larger context of greater risk for family disruption (including less than secure attachment) as well as domestic violence, poverty, and minority group status. The increasing incidence and prevalence of community violence poses a major challenge to the mental health of children.     

What do we learn in psychoanalytic training?

Can one define the aims of psychoanalytic training that most analysts would agree upon? For more than a decade the EPF Working Party ‘End of Training Evaluation Project (ETEP)’ has worked on this issue. Summarizing results of this work the author describes a set of basic elements every developing analyst should have learned or internalized during his training. His assertion is that most analysts notwithstanding their theoretical orientation could agree upon these necessary requirements for a successful ending of psychoanalytic training. These elements are demonstrated in the ability to understand the emotional demand of a patient in every session and the often ensuing emotional storm, to appreciate and deeply understand the value of free association, to preserve a neutral stance, to think in terms of transference and countertransference, and to think conceptually about what is happening and what one is doing in the session.     

What are we doing to the earth's climate and what are we going to do about it?

Climatic considerations are critical if our planet is to survive. The environment, and in particular the atmosphere, is particularly sensitive to man. The time has come to act in favor of that which gives us life. This is why, in a field which knows no boundaries, only an international strategy can be effective.     

What of the clients-eye view? A response to the millennium review

The BJGC 's (2000) symposium on guidance, psychotherapy and counselling reviewed the developments of these activities in the United Kingdom in the past and present, and then looked to the future at the turn of this millennium.The picture emerged of professionally dominated enterprises in which the client's point-of-view is obscure. This article explores why this is the case and how the client's perspective can reinforce the political as well as the therapeutic value of counselling, psychotherapy and guidance.     

Procedures: do we really want to know them? An examination of the effects of procedural justice on self-esteem

This study examined the effects of procedural justice on state-dependent self-esteem using the group-value model and attribution theory to present competing theoretical perspectives. The group-value model predicts a positive relationship between self-esteem and fair procedures. In contrast, attribution theory suggests procedural fairness interacts with outcome favorability to influence self-esteem. Thus, fair procedures will result in higher self-esteem ratings than unfair procedures when the outcome is positive but will result in lower self-esteem ratings than unfair procedures when the outcome is negative. The results of a laboratory and field study provide converging evidence to support the attribution theory predictions. The results of a 2nd laboratory study suggest that self-esteem is influenced by outcome expectancies, not actual outcomes.     

What is the best way to promote cycling? A systematic review and meta-analysis

Cycling has the potential to address a number of personal and societal challenges, not least with respect to health and the need for more sustainable modes of transport. However, the best way(s) to promote cycling is still unclear. In an effort to answer this question, we identified 39 interventions designed to promote cycling, with a total sample of 46,102 participants. Random effects meta-analysis estimated a small but statistically significant effect of interventions on cycling behaviour (g₊ = 0.14, 95% CI [0.05, 0.23]). To identify the most effective intervention strategies, we coded the behaviour change techniques used within each of the interventions. Interventions that prompted people to self-monitor their behaviour or added objects to the environment (e.g., provided shared bikes) were more effective than those that did not use these strategies. Interventions that restructured the physical environment (e.g., built new cycle paths) were less effective than the studies that did not do this. We also identified a number of factors that moderated the effect of the interventions on outcomes; specifically, interventions that targeted a specific group, used objective measures of cycling such as accelerometers, and that were tested using independent groups designs typically yielded stronger effects. The findings should help to guide interventions to promote cycling in the future.     

What do graded effects of semantic transparency reveal about morphological processing?

We examined the influence of semantic transparency on morphological facilitation in English in three lexical decision experiments. Decision latencies to visual targets (e.g., CASUALNESS) were faster after semantically transparent (e.g., CASUALLY) than semantically opaque (e.g., CASUALTY) primes whether primes were auditory and presented immediately before onset of the target (Experiment 1a) or visual with an stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) of 250 ms (Experiment 1b). Latencies did not differ at an SOA of 48 ms (Experiment 2) or with a forward mask at an SOA of 83 ms (Experiment 3). Generally, effects of semantic transparency among morphological relatives were evident at long but not at short SOAs with visual targets, regardless of prime modality. Moreover, the difference in facilitation after opaque and transparent primes was graded and increased with family size of the base morpheme.     

What do parents talk about to infants?

The content of parents' talk is studied here as expressing their conception of their developing infant, from the initial symbiotic fusion to an individual situtated in space, time and society. The topics parents introduce in their speech to their infant reflect the perception and expectations they have of their baby. The social and parental status of fathers and mothers, and the anticipated role and status of the child- and adult-to-be, and in particular the age and gender of the infant, mediate the choice of topics. Parents' spontaneous speech to 3-month- and 9-month-old infants was studied during a diapering episode, before leaving the day-care centre. Five minutes of such a speech was recorded, and each utterance was assigned to a semantic category (e. g. greetings, comments on diapering, on mood). Sex-typing is already noticeable as early as 3 months of age: comments on the present situation and state are more frequent for girls, and comments about absent persons or events more frequent with boys. Both parents contribute to this effect, fathers more than mothers. With age parents become less concerned with immediate problems and more aware of the infant's own performances. First names are used more for boys than for gilrs. As a whole, boys are considered as individuals earlier than girls.