Interpersonal perceptions and metaperceptions of relationship closeness, satisfaction and popularity: A relational and directional analysis

Relationship closeness, satisfaction in interaction, and popularity in mainland China was investigated using a methodological relational approach, which stresses the bidirectional nature of perceptions and metaperceptions. Two studies were conducted: one involving 164 dyads and the other 20 five-member groups; participants were college students of both sexes who were well acquainted with one another. Major results are: (i) liking perceptions and metaperceptions are predominately relational in nature; (ii) assumed reciprocities are not consistently larger than actual reciprocities; and (iii) directional congruence is modest for closeness, but high for satisfaction and popularity. These results are discussed in terms of methodological relationalism, particularly the construct of directionality.     

The Observer XT: A tool for the integration and synchronization of multimodal signals

The Observer was originally developed as a manual event recorder for the collection, management, analysis, and presentation of observational data in animals. Because of the flexibility of later versions, it became clear that The Observer was suitable for almost any study involving collection of observational data in both animals and humans. Furthermore, the most recent version of The Observer (The Observer XT) allows the integration and synchronization of multimodal signals from various sources, such as observational, video, tracking, and physiological data. This article describes how The Observer XT was used to integrate and synchronize video, observational, tracking, and physiological data from an experiment carried out in 2001 at the Wageningen Institute of Animal Sciences of Wageningen University and Research Centre. The integration and synchronization of these multimodal signals in The Observer XT allows the user to draw a more complete picture of the phenomena under study.     

The effect of embedded bonus rounds on slot machine preference

Twenty‐three university students completed a simulated slot machine task involving the concurrent presentation of two slot machines that were varied both in win density and the inclusion of a bonus round feature to evaluate the effect of embedded bonus rounds on participant response allocation. The results suggest that participants allocated a greater percentage of responses to machines with embedded bonus rounds across both dense (Bonus: M = 68.4, SD = 19.2; No Bonus: M = 51.2; 9.6) and lean (Bonus: M = 48.8, SD = 9.6; No Bonus: M = 31.6, SD = 19.2) reinforcement schedules, in which the overall reinforcement rate across all machines was held constant.     

Evaluation of the SCID-II personality disorder traits for DSM-IV: coherence, discrimination, relations with general personality traits, and functional impairment

The utility of the DSM personality disorder (PD) system remains a concern. The strategy employed represents one approach designed to evaluate and improve the diagnostic efficiency of the SCID-II PDs. Using a sample of 203 patients, SCID-II PD items-based on the criterion sets of the 10 DSM-IV PDs-were evaluated with respect to (a) convergent validity; (b) divergent validity; (c) relation to general personality traits; and (d) association with functional impairment. Only Borderline PD items were satisfactory on all four evaluation criteria. Histrionic and Obsessive-Compulsive PD items met criteria for convergent and divergent validity and relation to personality dimensions of the Five-Factor Model of Personality (FFM) but were not related to functional impairment, suggesting they might be reconsidered as disorders. Schizotypal PD items met three of the four criteria but showed no relation to FFM dimensions, suggesting that it may be a candidate for reassignment to Axis I.     

Discrimination of possible and impossible objects in infancy

Adults can use pictorial depth cues to infer three-dimensional structure in two-dimensional depictions of objects. The age at which infants respond to the same kinds of visual information has not been determined, and theories about the underlying developmental mechanisms remain controversial. In this study, we used a visual habituation/novelty-preference procedure to assess the ability of 4-month-old infants to discriminate between two-dimensional depictions of structurally possible and impossible objects. Results indicate that young infants are sensitive to junction structures and interposition cues associated with pictorial depth and can detect inconsistent relationships among these cues that render an object impossible. Our results provide important insights into the development of mechanisms for processing pictorial depth cues that allow adults to extract three-dimensional structure from pictures of objects.     

Mechanisms of modal and amodal interpolation

P. J. Kellman and T. F. Shipley (1992) and P. J. Kellman, P. Garrigan, and T. F. Shipley (2005) suggested that completion of partly occluded objects and illusory objects involve the same or similar mechanisms at critical stages of contour interpolation. B. L. Anderson, M. Singh, and R. W. Fleming and B. L. Anderson (2007) presented a number of arguments against this view. The author analyzes 3 of these arguments, as well as B. L. Anderson's ecological justification for believing that these mechanisms must be very different, and suggests that their conclusions are unwarranted. The author also outlines a model consistent with the identity hypothesis and with recent physiological evidence, including a quantitative proposal for contour interpolation strength. The model suggests that V1 and V2 receive from higher visual areas feedback that modulates their responses to stimuli eliciting modal completion, amodal completion, and collinear contour facilitation. The model qualitatively explains the unstable percepts evoked by various recently devised stimuli.     

Definability and Invariance

In his thesis Para uma Teoria Geral dos Homomorfismos (1944), the Portuguese mathematician José Sebastião e Silva constructed an abstract or generalized Galois theory, that is intimately linked to F. Klein’s Erlangen Program and that foreshadows some notions and results of today’s model theory; an analogous theory was independently worked out by M. Krasner in 1938. In this paper, we present a version of the theory making use of tools which were not at Silva’s disposal. At the same time, we tried to keep in mind, so much as possible, the gist of his standpoint.     

Comparative judgments with missing information: a regression and process tracing analysis

We had participants decide which one of two applicants was better qualified for a scholarship. They also judged the difference between them (comparative judgment). The applicants were described by features (grades) in different subjects (dimensions). The grades on some dimensions were missing (unique dimensions) for an alternative while all the grades were available on other dimensions (common dimensions). In a conventional regression analysis, we found that decision makers gave more weight to dimensions when they were common than when they were unique. However, this commensurability effect was limited to medium important dimensions and did not apply to dimensions of high or low importance. We also observed how participants retrieved information for the choice alternatives and analysed how importance and commensurability are reflected in the processing prior to the decision. Features on more important or common dimensions were inspected earlier than features on less important or unique dimensions. Participants preferred dimensional transitions and inspected features on unique dimensions longer than their common counterparts. This finding suggested that participants used inferences when features were missing. We propose an outline of a decision heuristic to describe decision making with missing information.     

Hoarding in a compulsive buying sample

Previous research has indicated that many compulsive buyers also suffer from compulsive hoarding. The present work specifically examined hoarding in a compulsive buying sample. Sixty-six treatment-seeking compulsive buyers were assessed prior to entering a group therapy for compulsive buying using the Compulsive Buying Scale (CBS), the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS)-Shopping Version, the Compulsive Acquisition Scale (CAS), the German-CBS, the Saving Inventory-Revised (SI-R), the Maudsley Obsessive Compulsive Inventory (MOCI), the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11), and the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I (SCID). Inclusion criteria were current problems with compulsive buying according to the proposed diagnostic criteria for compulsive buying by McElroy, Keck, Pope, Smith, and Strakowski [(1994). Compulsive buying: A report of 20 cases. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 55, 242-248]. Our results support the assumption that many but not all compulsive buyers suffer from compulsive hoarding. A significant association between the SI-R and the compulsive buying measures CBS, Y-BOCS-SV, German-CBS, and the CAS-Buy subscale was found, which is mostly caused by the SI-R subscale acquisition. The SI-R subscales clutter and difficulty discarding were more closely associated with the CAS-Free subscale and with obsessive-compulsive symptoms. Hoarding compulsive buyers reported more severe buying symptoms and obsessive-compulsive symptoms and presented with a higher psychiatric co-morbidity, especially any current affective, anxiety and eating disorder. Specific therapeutic interventions for compulsive buyers who also report compulsive hoarding appear indicated.