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).     

Embracing Humanity in the Face of Death: Why Do Existential Concerns Moderate Ingroup Humanization?

People humanize their ingroup to address existential concerns about their mortality, but the reasons why they do so remain ambiguous. One explanation is that people humanize their ingroup to bolster their social identity in the face of their mortality. Alternatively, people might be motivated to see their ingroup as more uniquely human (UH) to distance themselves from their corporeal “animal” nature. These explanations were tested in Australia, where social identity is tied less to UH and more to human nature (HN) which does not distinguish humans from animals. Australians attributed more HN traits to the ingroup when mortality was salient, while the attribution of UH traits remained unchanged. This indicates that the mortality-buffering function of ingroup humanization lies in reinforcing the humanness of our social identity, rather than just distancing ourselves from our animal nature. Implications for (de)humanization in intergroup relations are discussed.     

Opposing determinants of compliance and interrogative suggestibility

The Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scales (GSS 1 & 2) can illuminate social and cognitive factors which affect forensic interviewees’ vulnerability to pressure from interrogators. Variations of the GSS procedure can highlight detail in the dynamics of interrogative suggestibility (IS). Induced malingering is one such variation. The present study used this method in an attempt to reconcile conflicting findings of two previous malingering studies. An innovation was to pre-test participants on the standard GSS 2 to identify them as showing Low, Medium, or High IS. These groups then undertook the parallel GSS 1 but with the instruction to role-play a suspect who is attempting to appear abnormally suggestible. Results showed marked differences in the direction in which faking scores changed, from those at pre-testing, between the Low and the High groups, with the High group showing a decrease in GSS scores and the Low group an increase: the Medium group scores followed the trend of the Low group scores. It is suggested that these results explain why previous results using induced malingering have been inconsistent. The results are also discussed in terms of how differing expectancies and levels of interpersonal trust may affect interviewees.     

Giving the sceptic a good name

The word ‘sceptic’ usually refers to a theoretical figure whose philosophical importance lies exclusively in his challenge to any attempt to justify the belief in the possibility of knowledge. But the label was once applied to living persons ‐ the so‐called Pyrrhonists ‐ whose scepticism encompassed a way of life. Following Sextus Empiricus's portrayal of the Pyrrhonists, Arne Naess has provided comprehensive arguments both in rebuttal of the frequent claims either that scepticism is logically inconsistent or that at least it is impossible to put into practice, and in support of scepticism as a fruitful philosophical attitude. The present essay attempts a critical consolidation of Naess's case for scepticism by drawing more explicitly than he does on his work in empirical semantics. The notion of degrees of preciseness is used to outline a philosophically interesting rationale for the Pyrrhonist's persistent abstention from any act or action that commits him to the truth of a proposition, and also to indicate why possible, or even inevitable lapses on the Pyrrhonist's part need not seriously prejudice either his status as a sceptic or the philosophical value of his sceptical ideal.     

The Influence of Person Traits on Lawyer Selection Among British Adults

The present study examined selection criteria for lawyers among British adults, which begins to overturn a dearth of studies examining this issue among legal professions. A total of 122 participants were asked to rate eight lawyers dichotomized along lawyer origin (Britain versus South Asia), gender (women versus men), and age (younger versus older). A mixed-design analysis of variance showed that there was a main effect of lawyer origin, with British lawyers preferred over the South Asian counterparts. There were also a number of significant interactions between lawyer variables, as well as participant gender and age. The effect sizes of these interactions were generally smaller (η_p ² = .07?.24) than the main effect lawyer origin (η_p ² = .54). Limitations and practical implications are discussed in conclusion.     

the inventory of recent life experiences for cancer patients (IRLE-C): A decontaminated measure of cancer-based hassles

Abstract

Cancer is recognized to have multifaceted stressful impact on all areas of a patient's life. Researchers commonly use self-report questionnaires, intended to measure stressors objectively. However, the item-content and response-format of such scales often tap physical and mental responses to stress, thereby contaminating prediction of adverse impact. This article reports the development and validation of English and French versions of the Inventory of Recent Life Experiences for Cancer Patients (IRLE-C) which is designed to minimize such “criterion-contamination”. This entailed (1) avoiding items reflecting physical or subjective distress; (2) rating stressors for degree of exposure only; and (3) use of an innocuous scale title. The initial item pool was administered serially to a sample of 100 Francophone breast-cancer and prostate-cancer patients. To guard against inflating reliability and validity estimates through capitalizing on chance, we administered the 30-item final scale to an independent sample of 96 Francophone breast-cancer and prostate-cancer patients undergoing radiation treatment. Following the item-selection step, factorial structure and validity analyses were performed using the combined French-speaking sample (n= 196). Second, we administered the English version of the scale to an English-speaking sample of 127 cancer patients (various cancer sites and stages). The measure showed good internal consistency (.94 and .89 for the Francophone and Anglophone samples respectively) and met criteria for a 2-week test-retest reliability (r= .70 for the item-selection subsample and .80 for the cross-replication sub-sample). Correlations between the IRLE-C and the POMS Total Mood Disturbance were around .60 for both the Francophone and Anglophone samples. Avoiding contamination (through content and format) without losing its relationship to subjective distress, the IRLE-C appears a useful instrument for applying the stress-process model in oncology to establish clear distinctions among stressors, mediators, reactions, and consequences.     

Schaffer on laws of nature

In ‘Quiddistic Knowledge’ (Schaffer in Philos Stud 123:1–32, 2005), Jonathan Schaffer argued influentially against the view that the laws of nature are metaphysically necessary. In this reply I aim to show how a coherent and well-motivated form of necessitarianism can withstand his critique. Modal necessitarianism—the view that the actual laws are the laws of all possible worlds—can do justice to some intuitive motivations for necessitarianism, and it has the resources to respond to all of Schaffer’s objections. It also has certain advantages over contingentism in the domain of modal epistemology. I conclude that necessitarianism about laws remains a live option.     

The implicit structure of positive characteristics

The implicit structure of positive character traits was examined in two studies of 190 and 100 undergraduates. Participants judged the pairwise covariation or semantic similarity of 42 positive characteristics using a sorting or a rating task. Characteristics were drawn from a new classification of strengths and virtues, the Five-Factor Model, and a taxonomy of values. Participants showed consistent patterns of perceived association among the characteristics across the study conditions. Multidimensional scaling yielded three consistent dimensions underlying these judgments ("warmth vs. self-control," "vivacity vs. decency," and "wisdom vs. power"). Cluster analyses yielded six consistent groupings-"self-control," "love," "wisdom," "drive," "vivacity," and "collaboration"-that corresponded only moderately to the virtue classification. All three taxonomies were systematically related to this implicit structure, but none captured it satisfactorily on its own. Revisions to positive psychology's classification of strengths are proposed.