Remembering the names of unfamiliar animals: keywords as keys to their kingdom

Three experiments were conducted in which the face – name mnemonic technique was applied to learning the names of unfamiliar animals. In all three experiments, mnemonically instructed students outperformed ‘own best method’ controls on animal name‐recognition tests when prompted by the animals' pictures. In addition, mnemonic students remembered more animal names than did controls when they were shown previously unseen variations of the studied animals (Experiments 2 and 3). The present results illustrate the effectiveness of associative mnemonic strategies in facilitating people's memory for unfamiliar pictorial stimuli in both their original and varied representations. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Rethinking safety behaviors in insomnia: examining the perceived utility of sleep-related safety behaviors

Harvey's cognitive model of insomnia (2002a) proposes that sleep-related safety behaviors play a central role in the maintenance of insomnia because such maladaptive coping strategies are thought to reinforce threat-based appraisals of the likelihood and consequences of poor sleep. Research to date has assessed the frequency of safety behavior use in those with insomnia only; however, in addition to the frequency of occurrence, the function of safety behaviors (i.e., a belief that they will prevent a feared outcome from occurring), may be an important consideration. The purpose of this study was to examine sleep-related safety behaviors based on an expanded theoretical understanding of such behaviors across psychological disorders; that is, by examining both their frequency and perceived utility. Undergraduate students (N = 376) completed an online survey about their sleep, mood, and use of sleep-related safety behaviors. Insomnia severity was associated with a greater perceived need to use safety behaviors (i.e., utility) but not with frequency of safety behavior use. Higher perceived utility of safety behaviors was also associated with unhelpful beliefs about sleep, fear and avoidance of fatigue, and both general and sleep-specific helplessness. These results suggest that these behaviors and the associated underlying maladaptive beliefs may be important targets in cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia. The current study extends the existing literature and refines the concept of safety behaviors in insomnia to include both the function and frequency of these behaviors.     

A thin slice perspective on the accuracy of first impressions

The accuracy of first impressions was examined by investigating judged construct (negative affect, positive affect, the Big five personality variables, intelligence), exposure time (5, 20, 45, 60, and 300 s), and slice location (beginning, middle, end). Three hundred and thirty four judges rated 30 targets. Accuracy was defined as the correlation between a judge’s ratings and the target’s criterion scores on the same construct. Negative affect, extraversion, conscientiousness, and intelligence were judged moderately well after 5-s exposures; however, positive affect, neuroticism, openness, and agreeableness required more exposure time to achieve similar levels of accuracy. Overall, accuracy increased with exposure time, judgments based on later segments of the 5-min interactions were more accurate, and 60 s yielded the optimal ratio between accuracy and slice length. Results suggest that accuracy of first impressions depends on the type of judgment made, amount of exposure, and temporal location of the slice of judged social behavior.     

Effects of Expectancies and Personalized Feedback on Fat Consumption, Taste, and Preference

Previous studies have shown that people develop expectations about the taste and effects of consumed substances and that those expectations can guide future behavior, cognitions, and affect. Identifying expectancies for the taste of both low- and high-fat foods is important in determining people's reactions to changes in their diets. Study 1 was designed to determine the existence of expectancies for the taste of low-and high-fat foods and the effects of these expectations on food consumption and preference. Ninety-seven subjects tasted a bowl of ice cream and rated the taste on taste judgment forms. The fat content of the ice cream (high- versus low-fat) and the expectancy of high- versus low-fat content were independently manipulated using a balanced placebo design. Expectancy affected the consumption of ice cream under most circumstances: For women who received high-fat ice cream and for men, regardless of the ice cream received, consumption was higher when high-fat ice cream was expected than when low-fat ice cream was expected. Study 2 was designed to investigate the effects of educating individuals about the diet-cancer link on consumption and preference. Receiving information about diet and cancer, especially when the information was personalized, decreased overall consumption and reported preference. Current levels of daily fat consumption also affected laboratory consumption and preference. This study has several implications for interventions to lower dietary fat.     

Mood and alcohol consumption: an experience sampling test of the self-medication hypothesis

In this investigation the authors applied the experience sampling method to prospectively test the self-medication hypothesis. In vivo reports gathered in the context of daily life demonstrated that nervousness was the only negative mood state to predict increases in alcohol consumption later in the course of the day. Further examination of this within-person relationship demonstrated that men were more likely to consume alcohol when nervous than were women, but this association was unrelated to family history of alcoholism, problem drinking patterns, or trait anxiety and depression. Consistent with the self-medication hypothesis, cross-sectional analyses also confirmed that alcohol consumption was generally associated with lower levels of nervousness; this effect varied by several demographic and clinical variables. These findings are discussed in terms of the diversity of reasons for alcohol consumption and their potential for explaining problem drinking.     

Do we know how we cope? Relating daily coping reports to global and time-limited retrospective assessments

The current study examined the concordance among daily, trait (global retrospective), and time-limited retrospective reports of coping. A sample of 93 adults completed the COPE (C. S. Carver, M. F. Scheier, & J. K. Weintraub, 1989) prior to recording coping with the day's most negative event for 30 consecutive days. At the end of daily data collection, participants recalled to what extent they used each of 16 coping strategies over the past 30 days. Whereas findings indicate generally good concordance between daily and time-limited retrospective reports, concordance between global and daily reports was weak. Only limited evidence was found for systematic individual differences in concordance. Time-limited reports appear to be an adequate, though not ideal, method of determining usual patterns of coping with stress.     

Are People Polite to Computers? Responses to Computer-Based Interviewing Systems1

The present studies were designed to test whether people are “polite” to computers. Among people, an interviewer who directly asks about him- or herself will receive more positive and less varied responses than if the same question is posed by a third party. Two studies were designed to determine if the same phenomenon occurs in human–computer interaction. In the first study (N= 30), participants performed a task with a text-based computer and were then interviewed about the performance of that computer on 1 of 3 loci: (a) the same computer, (b) a paper-and-pencil questionnaire, or (c) a different (but identical) text-based computer. Consistent with the politeness prediction, same-computer participants evaluated the computer more positively and more homogeneously than did either paper-and-pencil or different-computer participants. Study 2 (N= 30) replicated the results with voice-based computers. Implications for computer-based interviewing are discussed.