Who's Watching the Race? Racial Salience in Recruitment Advertising1

A recent finding (Thomas & Wise, 1999) suggested that the race of organizational representatives may be more important to minority applicants than to White applicants. Consequently, this study empirically examines the impact of race in recruitment advertising on applicant attraction. Participants (N= 194) were recruited in 3 field settings and were exposed to recruitment literature varying the race of a depicted organizational representative. Results indicate that Black and Hispanic participants were more attracted when minority representatives were depicted; White participants' reactions were unaffected by representative race. Moreover, the extent to which participants believed themselves to be similar to the representative fully mediated the effect for minority participants.     

Response time accuracy in Apple Macintosh computers

The accuracy and variability of response times (RTs) collected on stock Apple Macintosh computers using USB keyboards was assessed. A photodiode detected a change in the screen’s luminosity and triggered a solenoid that pressed a key on the keyboard. The RTs collected in this way were reliable, but could be as much as 100 ms too long. The standard deviation of the measured RTs varied between 2.5 and 10 ms, and the distributions approximated a normal distribution. Surprisingly, two recent Apple-branded USB keyboards differed in their accuracy by as much as 20 ms. The most accurate RTs were collected when an external CRT was used to display the stimuli and Psychtoolbox was able to synchronize presentation with the screen refresh. We conclude that RTs collected on stock iMacs can detect a difference as small as 5–10 ms under realistic conditions, and this dictates which types of research should or should not use these systems.     

Love attitudes and relationship experience

The present study examined the association of love attitudes with the initiation, maintenance, and dissolution of relationships. Respondents completed the Love Attitudes Scale and a questionnaire designed to measure experiences at each stage of relationship development. Ludus was relevant to all stages of relationship development; ludic attitudes were associated with absence of concern for partner loyalty, short and uncommitted relationships, and positive feelings about relationship dissolution. Pragma was associated primarily with relationship initiation (i.e., selection of an appropriate partner). Agape and Mania were most apparent during maintenance, as evidenced by relationships with indicators of involvement and loyalty. Agape, Mania, and Eros related to negative emotions at the point of relationship dissolution.     

Donating to disaster victims: Responses to natural and humanly caused events

The effect of the cause of a disaster, i.e. whether it was perceived to be caused by human or natural factors, on willingness to donate money to disaster victims was examined. In Study 1 (N = 76), the cause of a fictitious disaster was experimentally varied. In Study 2 (N = 219), participants were asked about their views regarding donations to two real‐life disasters, one of which was perceived to be naturally caused while the other one was perceived to be caused by humans. In Study 3 (N = 115), the cause of a fictitious disaster was experimentally varied, but this time measures of the proposed psychological mediators of the effect on donations were included, namely perceived victim blame and the extent to which victims were thought to make an effort to help themselves. A measure of real donation behaviour was also added. In Study 4 (N = 196), the proposed psychological mediators were manipulated directly, and the effect of this on donations was monitored. Across all studies, more donations were elicited by naturally caused rather than humanly caused disasters. This difference was driven by a perception that the victims of natural disasters are to be blamed less for their plight, and that they make more of an effort to help themselves. Implications for theory and practice are discussed. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The survey of personal beliefs: comparison of south african, mexican and american samples

In order to investigate the cross-cultural reliability and independence of subscales of the Survey of Personal Beliefs (SPB) data from 751 undergraduate Psychology students (189 White South African students, 114 Black South African students, 262 Mexican students and 186 American students) were compared. Coefficient alphas for the subscales in all samples were low, ranging from .33 to .76. However, alphas for the total scale across all subgroups were high. A comparison of the rank ordering of alpha coefficients for subscales in the different samples partially supported the cross-cultural reliability of the SPB for White South African and Mexican students, and for Black South African and American students. The similarities across samples regarding intercorrelations and shared variance between subscales also provided some evidence for the possible cross-cultural independence of subscales of the SPB. Comparison of total and mean subscale scores showed no significant differences between males and females within samples. However, a significant effect for culture, with significant between-subject effects for all the subscales as well as for the total score, was found. This may be indicative of real differences in irrational belief styles between the groups or may be a result of the insufficient cross-cultural reliability of the SPB.     

Disentangling the effects of voice: the incremental roles of opportunity, behavior, and instrumentality in predicting procedural fairness

Many voice studies have failed to distinguish among voice opportunity, perceived voice opportunity, voice behavior, and voice instrumentality. Thus, the authors sought to clarify the roles of each in determining procedural fairness perceptions. Controlling for the effect of voice opportunity, each of the 3 remaining constructs was hypothesized to predict fairness. Furthermore, voice instrumentality was hypothesized to moderate the effect of voice behavior on fairness. Undergraduates (N = 102; 81 for some analyses) participated in an orientation-week design simulation in which voice opportunity was manipulated. The results indicated significant incremental effects of perceived voice opportunity and the predicted Voice Instrumentality x Voice Behavior interaction. Fairness was lowest for individuals who were denied voice opportunity, perceived less voice opportunity, and provided high levels of noninstrumental voice behavior.     

Do women with fragile X syndrome have problems in switching attention: preliminary findings from ERP and fMRI

Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that represents the most common known cause of developmental delay. Recent neuropsychological findings indicate that females with FXS present with a specific pattern of cognitive deficits and that these difficulties primarily involve skills requiring executive control. The present study is the first to examine the extent to which neural activity of females with FXS can be observed on a task that specifically taps two core deficits, namely switching and response inhibition. Brain activity was measured using both event-related electrical potentials (ERPs) and event-related functional MRI (fMRI) neuroimaging in separate studies using the same cognitive paradigm. Compared to controls, females with FXS were significantly slower and made more errors on trials that required an immediate response (Go) to stimulus onset but were comparable on trials that required a delayed response (Wait) to stimulus onset. At the brain level, several areas showed significantly greater activation for females with FXS compared with controls, including the cingulate cortex and left and right ventral prefrontal areas. In contrast, no areas were found to show significantly greater activation for controls compared with females with FXS.