Development of the Ability to Insert into a Series

The development of children's ability to insert an item into a series was investigated. Children ranging in age from 3 to 6 years old were given a seriation construction and insertion task, several different types of insertion tasks, and tasks in which they learned to recognize a series. Children's performance on the seriation construction and insertion task was not influenced by their experience with other tasks, and they were able to solve different types of insertion tasks by 5 years of age. The results thus support Piaget's (1965) and Halford's (1982) predictions of stage-related constraints on children's insertion skills, rather than Bullock's (1985) invariance hypothesis, which claims that experience is a more important influence.     

Determinants of patient satisfaction with the medical consultation

Abstract

This study assessed patient satisfaction with the medical consultation in ambulatory settings. A multistage sampling method, stratified by geographical location in metropolitan Sydney and type of medical practice, was employed. Two hundred and seventy-two patients attending medical consultations completed a brief questionnaire and interview immediately following a medical consultation with either a general practitioner or a medical specialist. Factor analysis of the questionnaire indicated that 58% of the variance in patient satisfaction ratings was accounted for by the level of interpersonal warmth and respect and the amount of information communicated by the doctor. Other factors impacting on satisfaction included the number of patient requests perceived to be met by the doctor, and the characteristics of the medical encounter, such as the length of the consultation and whether the visit was a first or subsequent consultation. There was no association between level of satisfaction and gender of doctor or the type of medical practice attended.     

Interpersonal sensitivity, status, and stereotype accuracy

A classic question in social and organizational psychology is whether low-status persons are more accurate in the perception of their high-status partners than the latter are in their perception of their subordinates. In a series of studies, Snodgrass (1985, 1992) tested this idea. She found that subordinates were more accurate at judging how their bosses viewed them than bosses were at judging how their subordinates viewed them, but that bosses were more accurate at judging how subordinates viewed themselves than subordinates were at judging how bosses viewed themselves. We believe, however, that these results were obscured by stereotype accuracy. Using previously collected data, we found that stereotype accuracy does lead to the pattern previously observed by Snodgrass. We also discovered that when we controlled for stereotype accuracy, subordinates' perceptions were generally more accurate than those of their bosses, which supports Snodgrass's original hypothesis.     

Sex differences in verbal fluency: the role of strategies and instructions

Sex differences in verbal fluency performance and strategies are highly controversial, nevertheless suggesting a slight female advantage at least for phonemic fluency. A tendency of increased clustering of words into phonemic and semantic subcategories in men and increased switching between those categories in women has been suggested. In spatial tasks, it has been demonstrated that changes in instructions favoring a certain cognitive strategy can alter sex differences in performance. Such an approach has, however, not been attempted previously with verbal tasks. In the present investigation, 19 women in their luteal cycle phase and 23 men performed a phonemic and a semantic fluency task with three different instructions, one neutral, one emphasizing the clustering, and one emphasizing the switching of words. While under neutral instructions no sex differences were observed in verbal fluency performance and strategies, sex differences in switching and overall performance were observed in semantic fluency with an instruction requiring a switching strategy. Furthermore, correlation analyses suggested that the importance of strategies for overall performance differed between women and men. While only switching, but not clustering was related to overall verbal fluency performance in all tasks under all instructions, this relationship was driven by women in the phonemic task, but by men in the semantic task. These results highlight the importance of a consistent methodology in sex difference research. Slight variations in instructions may in part explain inconsistencies regarding sex differences in verbal fluency between previous studies.     

Psychosocial Adjustment in Male-to-Female Transsexuals: An Overview of the Research Evidence

Transsexualism has been defined as an extreme gender dysphoria; it refers to unhappiness with one's biological sex and the desire to have the body of the opposite sex and to be regarded by others as a member of that other sex. Transsexualism is not a common condition, but its prevalence is not yet known. A large number of transsexuals receive hormonal treatment and sex reassignment surgery (SRS). In spite of years of poor quality research, due in part to methodological problems, recent research on surgical outcomes has provided important information. However, psychological research into transsexualism has ignored the cognitive style and psychological functioning of transsexuals, and very little effort has been made to incorporate research findings into the development of psychological treatments to improve the quality of life for transsexuals.     

The influence of social category cues on the happy categorisation advantage depends on expression valence

Facial race and sex cues can influence the magnitude of the happy categorisation advantage. It has been proposed that implicit race or sex based evaluations drive this influence. Within this account a uniform influence of social category cues on the happy categorisation advantage should be observed for all negative expressions. Support has been shown with angry and sad expressions but evidence to the contrary has been found for fearful expressions. To determine the generality of the evaluative congruence account, participants categorised happiness with either sadness, fear, or surprise displayed on White male as well as White female, Black male, or Black female faces across three experiments. Faster categorisation of happy than negative expressions was observed for female faces when presented among White male faces, and for White male faces when presented among Black male faces. These results support the evaluative congruence account when both positive and negative expressions are presented.     

A cultural adaptation of motivational interviewing to address heavy drinking among Hispanics

Although the need for cultural adaptations is often noted in addiction research, there are few templates to guide the process. The rationale for a social contextual framework to culturally adapt motivational interviewing for an immigrant heavy drinking Latino population in the U.S. Northeast is presented. The aim of the pilot study was to obtain data on acceptability of this approach. Participant responses to the adaptation were examined qualitatively and quantitatively in a preliminary study. Participants recruited from the community met criteria for risky drinking (men, ≥5 drinks/occasion or ≥14 drinks/week; women, ≥4 drinks/occasion or ≥7 drinks/week). Participants (n = 25) who completed baseline assessments and a culturally adapted brief motivational interview (CAMI) were asked to complete a qualitative exit interview to give feedback on their interview experience. Participants reported being highly engaged with treatment (M = 3.58 on a scale of 1-4, SD = .50), and felt very satisfied with treatment (M = 3.58 on a scale of 1-4, SD = .93). Nearly all (95%) reported that understanding their culture was important to understanding their drinking behavior. Results support the acceptability and relevance of this adaptation from participants' perspectives.     

The truth and bias model of judgment

We present a new model for the general study of how the truth and biases affect human judgment. In the truth and bias model, judgments about the world are pulled by 2 primary forces, the truth force and the bias force, and these 2 forces are interrelated. The truth and bias model differentiates force and value, where the force is the strength of the attraction and the value is the location toward which the judgment is attracted. The model also makes a formal theoretical distinction between bias and moderator variables. Two major classes of biases are discussed: biases that are measured with variables (e.g., assumed similarity) and directional bias, which refers to the extent to which judgments are pulled toward 1 end of the judgment continuum. Moderator variables are conceptualized as variables that affect the accuracy and bias forces but that do not affect judgments directly. We illustrate the model with 4 examples. We discuss the theoretical, empirical, methodological, measurement, and design implications of the model.     

Cross‐Situational Learning: An Experimental Study of Word‐Learning Mechanisms

Cross‐situational learning is a mechanism for learning the meaning of words across multiple exposures, despite exposure‐by‐exposure uncertainty as to the word's true meaning. We present experimental evidence showing that humans learn words effectively using cross‐situational learning, even at high levels of referential uncertainty. Both overall success rates and the time taken to learn words are affected by the degree of referential uncertainty, with greater referential uncertainty leading to less reliable, slower learning. Words are also learned less successfully and more slowly if they are presented interleaved with occurrences of other words, although this effect is relatively weak. We present additional analyses of participants’ trial‐by‐trial behavior showing that participants make use of various cross‐situational learning strategies, depending on the difficulty of the word‐learning task. When referential uncertainty is low, participants generally apply a rigorous eliminative approach to cross‐situational learning. When referential uncertainty is high, or exposures to different words are interleaved, participants apply a frequentist approximation to this eliminative approach. We further suggest that these two ways of exploiting cross‐situational information reside on a continuum of learning strategies, underpinned by a single simple associative learning mechanism.     

WORSHIPPING AN UNKNOWN GOD

This paper examines the religious tradition of ‘negative theology’, and argues that it is doubtful whether it leaves room for belief in God at all. Three theologians belonging in different degrees to this tradition are discussed, namely John Scotus Eriugena, Anselm of Canterbury and Nicolas of Cusa, and it is argued that all three, in maintaining the ineffability of God, reach positions that are in effect forms of agnosticism. There is a paradox here: if God is inconceivable, is it not self‐refuting to talk about him at all, even to state his inconceivability? The final part of the paper examines the work of the nineteenth‐century poet Arthur Hugh Clough, two of whose poems, Hymnos Aumnos, and Qui Laborat Orat, explore the paradox of talking about the inconceivable Godhead. Clough gives eloquent expression to the idea that leaving God unnamed is not equivalent to disowning him. There is room for a devout agnosticism.