Effects of hand orientation and delay on the verbal judgment of haptically perceived orientation

We examined the haptic perception of orientations of a single bar throughout the horizontal plane using a verbal response: participants were to assign a number of minutes to the orientation of a bar defined with respect to the stimulus table. Performance was found to be systematically biased. Deviations were consistent with, yet much smaller than, those resulting from haptic motor matching tasks. The size and direction of the deviations were found to correlate with hand orientation, and not to depend on spatial location per se, suggesting a role for hand-centred reference frames in biasing performance. Delaying the response by 10 s led to a small improvement only of right-hand perceptions, indicating different hemispheric involvement in processes involved in retaining and/or recoding of haptic orientation information. Also the haptic oblique effect was found with the current verbal response. Importantly, it was affected neither by hand orientation nor by delay, suggesting that the oblique effect is independent of the aforementioned deviations in orientation perception.     

Lessons from longitudinal studies for new approaches to the DSM-V: the FFM and FFT

After brief comments about each target article, we discuss their significance for the DSM-V, the implications for personality disorders of universal trait developmental trends, and our emerging theoretical model, the Five-Factor Theory, which provides an integrative context for these remarkable findings.     

Cross-sectional age differences in personality among medicare patients aged 65 to 100

1,084 older Medicare recipients were orally administered the NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI; P. T. Costa & R. R. McCrae, 1992). Participants were assigned to groups based on gender and age (65-79 or 80-100). An analysis of covariance showed that women had significantly higher Neuroticism, Openness, and Agreeableness scores; that older participants were significantly higher in Agreeableness; and that age differences in Agreeableness were significantly greater in men than in women. With the exception of Agreeableness, this study provides no evidence for age differences among those in the last decades of life.     

Age trends and age norms for the NEO Personality Inventory-3 in adolescents and adults

The NEO Personality Inventory-3 (NEO-PI-3) is a modification of the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) designed to be more understandable to adolescents. Data from adults aged 21 to 91 showed that the NEO-PI-3 also functions as well or better than the NEO-PI-R in adults. Age trends from combined adolescent (n = 500) and adult (n = 635) samples confirmed previous cross-sectional findings and demonstrated the importance of studying age changes especially at the facet level and during the decade of the 20s. Normative data for self-report and observer rating forms for adolescents, younger and older adults, and all adults are discussed, as well as for a combined-age group. It is argued that combined-age norms may be most appropriate for depicting the personality scores of individuals, but the utility for some purposes of within-age group scores is also acknowledged.     

The influence of intentional and incidental learning on acquiring spatial knowledge during navigation

In order to study the influence of intentional and incidental learning conditions on route learning, young adults walked a route through a university building. Half of the participants focused their attention on the route (intentional learning condition), while the other half did not (incidental learning condition). Five tests of spatial knowledge were employed: a route-length-estimation, landmark recognition, landmark ordering, map-drawing and navigation task. The intentional group performed better than the incidental group on the map-drawing and navigation task. No difference between the intentional and incidental group was found on the landmark-recognition and landmark-ordering task. Moreover, the intentional group overestimated the walking distance, while the incidental group underestimated it. These results suggest that route knowledge (landmark recognition and landmark ordering) requires less effortful processing than survey knowledge (developing a map-like representation and actual navigation).     

Evaluation of the Computerized Assessment System for Psychotherapy Evaluation and Research (CASPER) as a measure of treatment effectiveness with psychiatric inpatients

Assessment procedures to evaluate inpatient treatment effectiveness can provide information to inform clinical practice. The Computerized Assessment System for Psychotherapy Evaluation and Research (CASPER) represents a standardized approach to assess patients' target problems that combines elements of individualized and nomothetic approaches. Although previous evaluations of CASPER with other patient populations have been encouraging, its use as a measure of change with an inpatient population has not been examined. In this study, 75 psychiatric inpatients completed CASPER and the Behavior and Symptom Identification Scale-32 (BASIS-32) at hospital admission and discharge. Results supported the concurrent validity of CASPER as a measure of pre- and posttreatment functioning and suggested that CASPER may provide a sensitive measure of change during inpatient treatment. Findings also supported the notion that patients' ratings of the extent to which their treatment focused on the problems they identified as a high priority were related to their overall treatment satisfaction.     

The measurement and conceptualization of curiosity

In this study, the authors tried various methods to measure and conceptualize curiosity. A sample of 369 education students (103 men, 266 women) who were attending universities on the East Coast of the United States completed 5 paper-and-pencil curiosity measures in 1 of their classes. Using confirmatory factor analysis, the authors found that the data best fit a 3-factor curiosity model consisting of cognitive curiosity, physical thrill seeking, and social thrill seeking. These findings supported the development of new instruments that specifically measured those 3 curiosity types, new empirical research predicting meaningful curiosity-related outcomes, and subsequent theory building concerning how and why curiosity is a fundamental part of optimal human functioning.     

Age changes in personality and their origins: comment on Roberts, Walton, and Viechtbauer (2006)

Comments on the original article "Patterns of Mean-Level Change in Personality Traits Across the Life Course: A Meta-Analysis of Longitudinal Studies," by B. W. Roberts, K. W. Walton, and W. Viechtbauer. Although Roberts et al depicted the present authors as proponents of the immutability of traits, in fact we have always acknowledged the possibility of change, and we are pleased that the results of their meta-analysis are consistent with our conclusions about modest change after age 30. We agree with B.W. Roberts et al that analyses should be conducted at the level of more specific traits, but prefer the 30 facets of the Revised NEO Personality Inventory to the Social Dominance-Social Vitality distinction. The origins of age changes might be found either in environmental influences common to all cultures or in biologically based intrinsic maturation; we offer some reasons for preferring the latter interpretation. Meta-analyses are useful but not definitive, and the resolution of the origin question lies in further research.