The capacity of visual short-term memory is not a fixed number of objects

Luck and Vogel (1997) have reported several striking results in support of the view that visual short-term memory (VSTM) has a fixed capacity of four objects, irrespective of how many relevant features those objects comprise. However, more recent studies have challenged this account, indicating only a weak effect of the number of objects once other factors are more evenly equated across conditions. Here, we employed a symmetry manipulation to verify object segmentation in our displays, to demonstrate that when spatial and masking factors are held constant, the number of objects per se has no effect on VSTM. Instead, VSTM capacity may reflect the number of object "parts" or feature conjunctions in a given display.     

A comparison of the correlational structures and elevation patterns of the MMPI-2 restructured clinical (RC) and clinical scales

The relationship between the MMPI-2 restructured clinical scales and the original clinical scales was evaluated using an outpatient clinical sample (N = 150). Similar patterns of correlations to those reported by Tellegen et al. in 2003, such as high correlations between the restructured scales and their original scale counterparts and lower intercorrelations among the restructured scales than among the original scales, were found in the outpatient sample. The former provided evidence of convergence between the two sets of scales, whereas the latter increases the potential for discriminant validity in the restructured scale profiles. Mean T-scores of the restructured scales were significantly lower than their original scale counterparts for every clinical scale except Scale 1 (hypochondriasis). Individual profiles exhibited fewer scale elevations using the restructured clinical scales (M = 2.15, Mdn = 2.0) than the original clinical scales (M = 3.29, Mdn = 3.0). The majority of client profiles (56%) had fewer scale elevations when plotted using the restructured scales versus the original clinical scales.     

The relations of problem behavior status to children's negative emotionality, effortful control, and impulsivity: concurrent relations and prediction of change

The relations of children's internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors to their concurrent regulation, impulsivity (reactive undercontrol), anger, sadness, and fearfulness and these aspects of functioning 2 years prior were examined. Parents and teachers completed measures of children's (N = 185; ages 6 through 9 years) adjustment, negative emotionality, regulation, and behavior control; behavioral measures of regulation also were obtained. In general, both internalizing and externalizing problems were associated with negative emotionality. Externalizers were low in effortful regulation and high in impulsivity, whereas internalizers, compared with nondisordered children, were low in impulsivity but not effortful control. Moreover, indices of negative emotionality, regulation, and impulsivity with the level of the same variables 2 years before controlled predicted stability versus change in problem behavior status.     

Does previewing one stimulus feature help conjunction search?

We examined the effects of previewing one aspect of a search display, in order to determine what subset of display information is most useful as a prelude to a search task. Observers were asked to indicate the presence or absence of a known target, in a conjunction search where the target was defined by the combination of colour and orientation (a yellow horizontal line presented among yellow vertical and pink horizontal distractors). In the colour preview condition of experiment 1, observers were first shown a 1 s preview of the locations and colours of the search items before the actual search set was presented. That is, search items first appeared as yellow and pink squares for 1 s, which each then turned into yellow and pink oriented lines (in the same locations) which comprised the display to be searched. In the orientation preview condition, observers were first shown a 1 s preview of the locations and orientations of the search items before the actual search display was presented. These two conditions were compared to a control condition consisting of standard conjunction search without any preview display. There was no effect of colour preview; there was a marginal effect of orientation preview, but in the opposite direction from what was expected reaction time increased for orientation preview searches. In experiment 2 these previews were compared to two spatial cueing conditions; in this experiment the colour preview did provide a small amount of help. Finally, in experiment 3 both previews were presented in succession, and increased facilitation was found, in particular when the colour preview preceded the orientation preview. These findings are discussed in relation to the literature, in particular the Guided Search model (Wolfe et al 1989 Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 15 419-433; Wolfe 1994 Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 1 202-238).     

Children with lesbian parents: a community study

Existing research on children with lesbian parents is limited by reliance on volunteer or convenience samples. The present study examined the quality of parent-child relationships and the socioemotional and gender development of a community sample of 7-year-old children with lesbian parents. Families were recruited through the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, a geographic population study of 14,000 mothers and their children. Thirty-nine lesbian-mother families, 74 two-parent heterosexual families, and 60 families headed by single heterosexual mothers were compared on standardized interview and questionnaire measures administered to mothers, co-mothers/fathers, children, and teachers. Findings are in line with those of earlier investigations showing positive mother-child relationships and well-adjusted children.     

The role of spatial attention in the processing of facial expression: An ERP study of rapid brain responses to six basic emotions

To investigate the time course of emotional expression processing, we recorded ERP responses to stimulus arrays containing neutral versus angry, disgusted, fearful, happy, sad, or surprised faces. In one half of the experiment, the task was to discriminate emotional and neutral facial expressions. Here, an enhanced early frontocentral positivity was elicited in response to emotional as opposed to neutral faces, followed by a broadly distributed positivity and an enhanced negativity at lateral posterior sites. These emotional expression effects were very similar for all six basic emotional expressions. In the other half of the experiment, attention was directed away from the faces toward a demanding perceptual discrimination task. Under these conditions, emotional expression effects were completely eliminated, demonstrating that brain processes involved in the detection and analysis of facial expression require focal attention. The face-specific N170 component was unaffected by any emotional expression, supporting the hypothesis that structural encoding and expression analysis are independent processes.     

Gender Differences in Cheating Attitudes and Classroom Cheating Behavior: A Meta-Analysis

Although academic dishonesty is a major problemin American colleges and universities, relatively littleresearch has investigated gender differences incheating. Based on the differential socialization theory of gender differences in moral reasoning(e.g., Chodorow, 1989; Gilligan, 1982) we expected that,compared to women, men would report more favorableattitudes toward cheating and more cheating behavior. We conducted a meta-analysis that included 8studies of gender differences in attitudes towardcheating, 34 studies of gender differences in cheatingbehavior, and 6 studies that investigated both attitudes and behavior. Although the mean effect size forgender differences in attitudes was of moderatemagnitude, equivalent to a correlation of r = .21, themean effect size for behavior was small, equivalent to r = .08. Behavior effect sizes also varied asa function of field of study, method of data collection,and country in which the study was conducted. We discussthe implications of our results for future research on gender differences in academicdishonesty.     

The Relationships Among Counselor-Trainees' Gender,Cognitive Development,and White Racial Identity: Implications for Counselor Training

In a study of 82 White counselor trainees enrolled in 3 graduate programs, gender and the lowest stage of cognitive development were found to significantly contribute to the variance in lower levels of the White racial identity. Male trainees who tended to think in dichotomous terms and look to authority to provide the correct answers tended to report attitudes about race reflected in lower levels of White racial identity. Significant relationships were not found between higher stages of cognitive development and higher levels of White racial identity. Implications for training are presented and discussed.     

Storage of verbal associations is sufficient to activate the left medial temporal lobe

Neuroimaging studies have shown that memory encoding activates the medial temporal lobe (MTL). Many believe that these activations are related to novelty but it remains unproven which is critical - novelty detection or the rich associative encoding it triggers. We examined MTL activation during verbal associative encoding using functional magnetic resonance imaging. First, associative encoding activated left posterior MTL more than single word encoding even though novelty detection was matched, indicating not only that associative encoding activates the MTL particularly strongly, but also that activation does not require novelty detection. Moreover, it remains to be convincingly shown that novelty detection alone does produce such activation. Second, repetitive associative encoding produced less MTL activation than initial associative encoding, indicating that priming of associative information reduces MTL activation. Third, re-encoding familiar associations in a well-established way had a minimal effect on both memory and MTL activation, indicating that MTL activation reflects storage of associations, not merely their initial representation.