Holistic processing is finely tuned for faces of one's own race

Recognizing individual faces outside one's race poses difficulty, a phenomenon known as the other-race effect. Most researchers agree that this effect results from differential experience with same-race (SR) and other-race (OR) faces. However, the specific processes that develop with visual experience and underlie the other-race effect remain to be clarified. We tested whether the integration of facial features into a whole representation-holistic processing-was larger for SR than OR faces in Caucasians and Asians without life experience with OR faces. For both classes of participants, recognition of the upper half of a composite-face stimulus was more disrupted by the bottom half (the composite-face effect) for SR than OR faces, demonstrating that SR faces are processed more holistically than OR faces. This differential holistic processing for faces of different races, probably a by-product of visual experience, may be a critical factor in the other-race effect.     

Social discounting

The amount of money a person was willing to forgo in order to give 75 dollars to another person decreased as a hyperbolic function of the perceived social distance between them. Similar hyperbolic functions have previously been shown to describe both time and probability discounting.     

New reflections on visual search: Interitem symmetry matters!

A 90 degrees rotation of a display can turn a relatively easy visual search into a more difficult one. A series of experiments examined the possible causes of this effect, including differences in overall item shape and response mapping (Experiment 1), the interpretation of scene lighting (Experiment 2), the axis of internal symmetry of the search items (Experiment 3), and the axes of interitem symmetry between target and distractor items (Experiment 4). Only the elimination of differences in interitem mirror symmetry resulted in equal search efficiency in the upright and rotated displays. This finding is strong support for the view that visual search is guided by an analysis that considers interitem relations.     

Enhancing the transfer of computer-assisted training proficiency in geographically distributed teams

The authors examined factors that determine whether knowledge gained from computer-assisted (i.e., technology-based) team training in a geographically distributed team (GDT) context transfers to organizational results. They examined the moderating effects of team trust, technology support, and leader experience on the relation between teams' average individual training proficiency on a computer-assisted (i.e., CD-ROM-based) training program and team performance as assessed by team customer satisfaction ratings. Using data collected from 40 GDTs in a high-technology company, the authors found that the relation between teams' average training proficiency and team performance was complex and moderated by several factors. In particular, teams' average training proficiency had a positive association with customer satisfaction when GDTs were higher, rather than lower, in both trust and technology support and when team leaders had longer, rather than shorter, levels of tenure with their specific team.     

An examination of learning processes during critical incident training: implications for the development of adaptable trainees

Three experiments are reported that examined the process by which trainees learn decision-making skills during a critical incident training program. Formal theories of category learning were used to identify two processes that may be responsible for the acquisition of decision-making skills: rule learning and exemplar learning. Experiments 1 and 2 used the process dissociation procedure (L. L. Jacoby, 1998) to evaluate the contribution of these processes to performance. The results suggest that trainees used a mixture of rule and exemplar learning. Furthermore, these learning processes were influenced by different aspects of training structure and design. The goal of Experiment 3 was to develop training techniques that enable trainees to use a rule adaptively. Trainees were tested on cases that represented exceptions to the rule. Unexpectedly, the results suggest that providing general instruction regarding the kinds of conditions in which a decision rule does not apply caused them to fixate on the specific conditions mentioned and impaired their ability to identify other conditions in which the rule might not apply. The theoretical, methodological, and practical implications of the results are discussed.     

Mother and self-representations: investigating associations with symptomatic behavior and academic competence in middle childhood

This article reports two studies examining the content and structural aspects of maternal and self-representations in middle childhood in two prospective studies of 9 to 11-year-old children, their stability over time and interrelations, and their contribution to symptomatology and academic functioning. In Study 1 (N=169), content and structural dimensions of participants' open-ended narratives of self and mother were assessed, and their factor structure was replicated across two consecutive measurement waves carried out a year apart. In Study 2 (N=137), using an independent sample, the authors investigated the associations of self- and maternal representations with teachers' subsequent reports of children's internalizing and externalizing symptomatology and academic competence. It was assumed that dimensions of self-representations played a mediating role in the prediction of children's symptomatology and competence by their maternal representations. Results corroborated the existence of interdependent but distinct representations of self and mother in middle childhood, as well as the stability over time of the structural and thematic aspects within each representation. The content of the self- and maternal representations was found to associate with observed symptomatic behavior, while their structure associated with children's academic competence. In addition, results indicated that self-representation content mediates the association of maternal representation content with subsequent symptomatic behavior. Findings are discussed in the light of the differentiation and interdependence of self- and maternal representations in middle childhood.     

Trait and social processes in the link between social support and affect: an experimental, laboratory investigation

This study investigated the extent to which the link between perceived social support and affect reflected support recipients' trait perceived support as well as three distinct social processes: the objective supportiveness of providers, the unique relationships among recipients and providers that were stable over occasions, as well as the unique relationships that varied across occasions. Ten recipients interacted with each of the same four providers on five separate occasions, for a total of 200 interactions. Recipients and independent observers rated recipient affect and provider support. Greater perceived support was related to greater positive affect for recipients' trait perceived support, as well as for relationships that were stable over occasions and relationships that varied across occasions. No social support effects were found for negative affect. Perceived similarity was a consistent predictor of recipients' support perceptions. Implications for social support models and interventions were discussed.     

Buying books online: a replication

In a replication study, purchasing books online by 137 state college students was predicted by computer/Internet skills.     

Spontaneous Eye Blink Rates vary according to individual differences in generalized control perception

This study tested the hypothesis that individual differences in generalized control perception for 43 undergraduate adults may be reflected in Spontaneous Eye Blink Rates during conversation in an interview. Control perception was assessed by means of Rotter's internal-external Locus of Control questionnaires, while Spontaneous Eye Blink Rates were computed from filmed videos of interviews consisting of a series of questions which could presumably have triggered different mental states. Pearson correlations and linear regression analyses indicated that the individual differences in Spontaneous Eye Blink Rates did not differ significantly across different questions, but that Spontaneous Eye Blink Rates measured over the entire interview correlated positively and significantly with an internal Locus of Control (r = .26). This could be interpreted as modest but corroborative evidence that a personality trait reflecting control perception may have a biological component. The possible roles of dopamine neurotransmission and frontal cortex involvement in higher cognition and Locus of Control are discussed.