Processes leading to confidence and accuracy in sentence recognition: A metamemory approach

We propose that memory confidence is based on the processes and products of the just-completed memory task, along with the participants’ metamemory beliefs about the relation of these processes and products to memory accuracy. We tested this metamemory approach to confidence by having participants carry out a simple recognition memory task with deceptive and nondeceptive items. The deceptive items were sentences that contained a possible synonym substitution, thus allowing errors based on gist memory. For nondeceptive items, high confidence was associated with high accuracy. For deceptive items the relationship reversed; high confidence was associated with low accuracy. A memory process questionnaire was developed that provided more differentiated phenomenal reports than the traditional know/remember distinction. For nondeceptive items, metamemory beliefs tended to be valid indicators of accuracy, but for deceptive items involving unconscious reconstructive memory processes, they tended to be invalid indicators of memory accuracy. The overall results lend strong support for our metamemory approach to memory confidence.     

Steps Toward an Ecology of Writing in Digital Environments: A 21st-Century Walk Through van Gogh's Bedroom

This study examined how exposure to a computer-generated, avatar-based environment influences student composition of an essay in response to a writing prompt. Drawing on the distinctions between firsthand and secondhand experiences, this article sketches an ecological model of writing that attempts to explain why students exposed to an avatar-based environment wrote first-person essays in the present tense, whereas students exposed to a comparable web page-based environment wrote third-person essays in the past tense.     

Ethical beliefs and behaviors in applied sport psychology: The AAASP ethics survey

Abstract

AAASP members (N = 508) were surveyed to obtain preliminary data on ethical beliefs and behaviors specific to the practice of applied sport psychology. Completed surveys were received from 165 individuals. On the structured response portion of the survey, there were few differences in ethical beliefs and behaviors as a function of gender, professional/student status, and academic discipline. Nevertheless, a large number of controversial behaviors (N = 24) and difficult judgments (N = 8) were identified. Results of the open-ended portion of the survey indicated that most of the questionable ethical practices cited by respondents corresponded to violations of American Psychological Association (APA) Ethical Standards. The findings lend initial support for AAASP to adopt the APA Ethical Standards and suggest the need for ethics training specific to applied sport psychology.     

Athletes' inclination to play through pain: a coping perspective

Previous studies have shown how social networks lead athletes to accept pain as a "part of the game," which generates pressure on athletes to continue competing despite being in pain. Little is known, however, about the potential coping strategies that are related to pain behavior in sport. This study of 205 combat athletes examined whether pain coping strategies, including distraction from pain, praying, reinterpreting pain sensations, ignoring pain, and pain catastrophizing, are related to athletes' inclination to play through pain. Results revealed that pain catastrophizing led athletes to reduce their physical involvement in their sport activity. Of particular interest was the moderating effect of ignoring pain such that ignoring pain significantly attenuated the negative effect of pain intensity on athletes' inclination to play through pain. Few studies have tested and supported the contribution of pain coping to the prediction of behavior in real sport situations. By identifying which coping strategies athletes could use to maintain their physical involvement despite being in (sometimes intense) pain, the current study makes an important contribution for tailoring pain management programs for this at-risk population.     

The effects of end-of-day picture review and a sensor-based picture capture procedure on autobiographical memory using SenseCam

Emerging "life-logging" technologies have tremendous potential to augment human autobiographical memory by recording and processing vast amounts of information from an individual's experiences. In this experiment undergraduate participants wore a SenseCam, a small, sensor-equipped digital camera, as they went about their normal daily activities for five consecutive days. Pictures were captured either at fixed intervals or as triggered by SenseCam's sensors. On two of five nights, participants watched an end-of-day review of a random subset of pictures captured that day. Participants were tested with a variety of memory measures at intervals of 1, 3, and 8 weeks. The most fruitful of six measures were recognition rating (on a 1-7 scale) and picture-cued recall length. On these tests, end-of-day review enhanced performance relative to no review, while pictures triggered by SenseCam's sensors showed little difference in performance compared to those taken at fixed time intervals. We discuss the promise of SenseCam as a tool for research and for improving autobiographical memory.     

Believing versus Disbelieving in Free Will: Correlates and Consequences

Some people believe more than others in free will, and researchers have both measured and manipulated those beliefs. Disbelief in free will has been shown to cause dishonest, selfish, aggressive, and conforming behavior, and to reduce helpfulness, learning from one’s misdeeds, thinking for oneself, recycling, expectations for occupational success, and actual quality of performance on the job. Belief in free will has been shown to have only modest or negligible correlations with other variables, indicating that it is a distinct trait. Belief in free will has correlated positively with life satisfaction and finding life meaningful, with self‐efficacy and self‐control, with low levels of stress, and (though not entirely consistently) with internal locus of control. High belief in free will has been linked to a punitive attitude toward wrongdoers and lower forgiveness toward them. The belief seems to involve a sense of agency and expecting others to behave in morally responsible fashion.     

Social acceptance of mentally retarded children in regular schools in relation to years mainstreamed

This study examined whether the social status of mainstreamed retarded children among their nonretarded peers improved as a consequence of extended contact. A sociometric questionnaire was administered to the nonretarded classmates of two groups of retarded children mainstreamed for an average of 1.7 yr. and 4 yr., respectively. Social acceptance of retarded children was low relative to their nonretarded peers. However, in contrast with previous research, retarded children did not receive higher social rejection ratings. Acceptance and rejection measures did not indicate any improvement in social status of the retarded children as a result of an extended period of mainstreaming.     

We ARE Darwinians,and this is what the fuss is all about

Evolutionary accounts of human behavior often involve constructing the past from the present. For this reason, such accounts are highly susceptible to ideological biases and cultural blinders. Sociobiology is a variant of competitive individualism that also underlies many economic and psychological models. These assumptions must be tested against competing models of human sociality if evolutionary psychology is to be science rather than dogma.Nonbelief, when rigorous, systematic, and searching was considered a threat to all orthodoxy; no institution is safe if people simply stop believing in the assumptions that justify its existence.Margaret C. Jacob,The Cultural Meaning of the Scientific Revolution Adapted from a symposium presentation given at the annual meeting of the Society for Experimental Social Psychology, October 13, 1990, Buffalo, New York.