Investigators under influence: How social norms activate goal‐directed processing of criminal evidence

Previous research has shown that exposure to social information can influence behaviour through the automatic activation of goals. In the first study to examine such influences in a legal setting, an experiment with 104 experienced criminal investigators tested the idea that exposure to occupational norms can activate distinct information‐processing goals. As predicted, exposure to norms associated with efficiency (vs. thoroughness) sped up and reduced the depth of investigators' processing of criminal evidence, thus reducing their openness to sequentially late witness evidence. In addition, the goal activation operated outside investigators' awareness, illustrating the insidious cognitive influence of occupational norms. The results are discussed in terms of practical significance and contributions to the goal activation literature and the applied study of criminal investigations. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Co-activation of syntax in bilingual language production

We report four experiments that examined whether bilinguals’ production of one language is affected by the syntactic properties of their other language. Greek–English and English–Greek highly proficient fluent bilinguals produced sentence completions following subject nouns whose translation had either the same or different number. We manipulated whether participants produced completions in the same language as the subject (the source language; one-language production) or the other language (the non-source language; two-language production), and whether they used only one language or both languages within the experimental session. The results demonstrated that the grammar systems of both languages were activated during both one-language and two-language production. The effects of the non-source language were particularly enhanced in two-language utterances, when both languages were used in the experiment, and when it was the bilinguals’ native language. We interpret our results in terms of a model of bilingual sentence production.     

Semantic similarity of labels and inductive generalization: Taking a second look

Prior research suggests that preschoolers can generalize object properties based on category information conveyed by semantically-similar labels. However, previous research did not control for co-occurrence probability of labels in natural speech. The current studies re-assessed children’s generalization with semantically-similar labels. Experiment 1 indicated that adults made category-based inferences regardless of co-occurrence probability; however, 4-year-olds generalized with semantically-similar labels that co-occurred in child-directed speech (e.g., bunny–rabbit) but not with non-co-occurring labels (e.g., crocodile–alligator). Experiment 2 indicated that generalization with semantically-similar labels increased gradually between 4- and 6-years of age. These results are discussed in relation to theories of early learning.     

Religion and action control: Faith-specific modulation of the Simon effect but not Stop-Signal performance

Previous findings suggest that religion has a specific impact on attentional processes. Here we show that religion also affects action control. Experiment 1 compared Dutch Calvinists and Dutch atheists, matched for age, sex, intelligence, education, and cultural and socio-economic background, and Experiment 2 compared Italian Catholics with matched Italian seculars. As expected, Calvinists showed a smaller and Catholics a larger Simon effect than nonbelievers, while performance of the groups was comparable in the Stop-Signal task. This pattern suggests that religions emphasizing individualism or collectivism affects action control in specific ways, presumably by inducing chronic biases towards a more “exclusive” or “inclusive” style of decision-making. Interestingly, there was no evidence that religious practice affects inhibitory skills.     

Transformed Facial Similarity as a Political Cue: A Preliminary Investigation

Experimental subjects evaluated a political candidate whose face was digitally altered to absorb the subjects' facial structure. For half of the subjects, the photograph of the candidate was morphed such that the image presented was a blend composed of 60% of the unfamiliar Caucasian male and 40% of the subject. For the other half the photograph was unaltered. Given previous research on implicit familiarity (Zajonc, 1968, 1980), we predicted that the morph would advantage the candidate. The results demonstrated no main effect of the similarity manipulation. However, there was a robust similarity by gender interaction. Male subjects evaluated the morphed candidate more favorably than the unaltered photograph, while female subjects rated him more negatively. We discuss potential explanations for this interaction effect and explore the possible implications of facial similarity as a political cue in both high- and low-information elections.     

Educating the Muslim minority in Western Thrace

A large-scale, interdisciplinary Project for Reform in the Education of Muslim Children (PEM) in Western Thrace, Greece, was implemented during the years 1977–2004. Although PEM was a specifically educational project entailing teaching Greek as a second language, development of educational materials, teacher training and academic outcome, it was bound to involve identity issues and directly or indirectly embrace the entire Thracian community. A historical and socio-political background is provided in order for the reader to understand the way power is negotiated between majority and minority and the controversies that characterize educational policy and instructional practices in such a context of ethnic, religious and linguistic diversity.     

Understanding Motor Awareness Through Normal and Pathological Behavior

ABSTRACT— Data on patients with localized brain damage and on neurologically intact subjects show that normal motor control depends on the functionality of a chain of neurobiological events. These events, through the activation of internal representations of the desired, predicted, and actual condition of one's body with respect to the external world, contribute to the construction of conscious knowledge of voluntary actions and to self-awareness.     

The Santa Clara Ethics Scale

Pastoral Psychology - Ethics and ethical decision-making are important for well-functioning communities and societies, including college campuses. Yet, there are very few high quality,...     

Foreign and domestic company attractiveness to host national employees in Japan: A person–organization fit and image theory perspective

This study contributes to research on organizational attractiveness and human resource management (HRM) by drawing on image theory to examine the effect of organizational characteristics (foreign vs. domestic company country‐of‐origin, HRM practices, organizational culture, and work environment) on organizational attractiveness perceptions by host country national (HCN) employees. Drawing on person–organization fit theory, we also examine the moderating effects of HCNs' demographic characters (age and gender), work‐related skills (English proficiency and international experience), and value orientations (individualism and risk aversion) between the relationship of these organizational characteristics and organizational attractiveness. A between‐subject scenario‐based experiment with 800 HCN employees in Japan suggest that not the company country‐of‐origin, but the local adaptation of organizational culture, HRM practices, and work environment influence HCNs' organizational attractiveness perceptions. HCNs' demographic characteristics, work‐related skills, and value orientations had moderating effects between these organizational characteristics and organizational attractiveness perceptions.