Sex Differences in Self-reported Infidelity and its Correlates

We examined sex differences in the prevalence, incidence, reasons for, and consequences of infidelity. Participants (Study 1, 543 undergraduates in the Northwestern US; Study 2, 313 undergraduates and 233 community members in the Mid-Atlantic US), reported on infidelity by questionnaire. Using a broad definition of cheating, women reported being as unfaithful or more unfaithful than men. Men were more suspicious about cheating and more likely to discover the cheating than women. Women were more likely to break up with their partners, to begin new relationships after cheating, and to report reasons for cheating that may indicate a desire to switch long-term mates, such as being unhappy in the current relationship. Results are discussed in the context of evolutionary theory.     

Do amnesic patients with Korsakoff’s syndrome use feedback when making decisions under risky conditions? An experimental investigation with the Game of Dice Task with and without feedback

We investigated the role of feedback processing in decision making under risk conditions in 50 patients with amnesia in the course of alcoholic Korsakoff's syndrome (KS). Half of the patients were administered the Game of Dice Task (GDT) and the remaining 25 patients were examined with a modified version of the GDT in which no feedback was provided. Patients' results in the GDT and in the modified version were compared with that of 50 healthy subjects of whom 25 subjects performed the original GDT and 25 performed the modified version. While performance on the original GDT was superior to performance on the modified GDT in healthy subjects, KS patients performed similarly on both the GDT with and GDT without feedback. Performance on both task versions was correlated with categorization and set-shifting. The findings indicate that amnesic patients do not profit from receiving feedback for their decisions in explicit risk conditions.     

Effects of a school reform on longitudinal stability of students’ preferences with regard to education

Background . Students’ perspective on education is of crucial importance for its effectivity, but students’ opinions are seldom acknowledged by teachers and designers. Student participation in the educational design process could be a suitable tool to better take students’ preferences into account. However, for effective participatory design, it is necessary to know whether students have stable preferences for the design of their education. Changeability of preferences would require a more continuing design process allowing continuous adaptations. Aims . This longitudinal survey study aimed to determine the changeability over time of students’ preferences for different aspects of a learning environment. Additionally, causes of possible changes in preferences are investigated. Sample . The participants were 1,335 high school students of five schools for secondary education in the Netherlands, joining this study during a period of 2 years. Method . Data about students’ preferences were collected at three moments, using the Inventory of Perceived Study Environment Extended. Learning‐related student characteristics, such as processing strategies and motivational orientations, were measured with the Inventory of Learning Styles. Additionally, data on learning performances were collected. Results . The results showed stability on preferences for almost all studied characteristics of the learning environment. Particularly remarkable was a drop in desirability for student autonomy. This was larger for students with a certificate‐oriented motivation and smaller for self‐regulated students. Additionally, poorly performing students had a larger decrease in preference for autonomy. Conclusions . The stability on most aspects supports that participatory design might result in fairly stable instructional designs, although caution is needed with respect to student autonomy.     

Evaluation of the evidence for the trauma and fantasy models of dissociation

The relationship between a reported history of trauma and dissociative symptoms has been explained in 2 conflicting ways. Pathological dissociation has been conceptualized as a response to antecedent traumatic stress and/or severe psychological adversity. Others have proposed that dissociation makes individuals prone to fantasy, thereby engendering confabulated memories of trauma. We examine data related to a series of 8 contrasting predictions based on the trauma model and the fantasy model of dissociation. In keeping with the trauma model, the relationship between trauma and dissociation was consistent and moderate in strength, and remained significant when objective measures of trauma were used. Dissociation was temporally related to trauma and trauma treatment, and was predictive of trauma history when fantasy proneness was controlled. Dissociation was not reliably associated with suggestibility, nor was there evidence for the fantasy model prediction of greater inaccuracy of recovered memory. Instead, dissociation was positively related to a history of trauma memory recovery and negatively related to the more general measures of narrative cohesion. Research also supports the trauma theory of dissociation as a regulatory response to fear or other extreme emotion with measurable biological correlates. We conclude, on the basis of evidence related to these 8 predictions, that there is strong empirical support for the hypothesis that trauma causes dissociation, and that dissociation remains related to trauma history when fantasy proneness is controlled. We find little support for the hypothesis that the dissociation-trauma relationship is due to fantasy proneness or confabulated memories of trauma.     

Risk assessment behaviors associated with corticosterone trigger the defense reaction to social isolation in rats: role of the anterior cingulate cortex

The extent to which the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis is activated by short-term and long-term consequences of stress is still open to investigation. This study aimed to determine (i) the correlation between plasma corticosterone and exploratory behavior exhibited by rats subjected to the elevated plus maze (EPM) following different periods of social isolation, (ii) the effects of the corticosterone synthesis blocker, metyrapone, on the behavioral consequences of isolation, and (iii) whether corticosterone produces its effects through an action on the anterior cingulate cortex, area 1 (Cg1). Rats were subjected to 30-min, 2-h, 24-h, or 7-day isolation periods before EPM exposure and plasma corticosterone assessments. Isolation for longer periods of time produced greater anxiogenic-like effects on the EPM. However, stretched attend posture (SAP) and plasma corticosterone concentrations were increased significantly after 30?min of isolation. Among all of the behavioral categories measured in the EPM, only SAP positively correlated with plasma corticosterone. Metyrapone injected prior to the 24?h isolation period reversed the anxiogenic effects of isolation. Moreover, corticosterone injected into the Cg1 produced a selective increase in SAP. These findings indicate that risk assessment behavior induced by the action of corticosterone on Cg1 neurons initiates a cascade of defensive responses during exposure to stressors.     

Accuracy of Effect Size Estimates From Published Psychological Experiments Involving Multiple Trials

The reporting of exaggerated effect size estimates may occur either through researchers accepting statistically significant results when power is inadequate and/or from repeated measures approaches aggregating, averaging multiple items, or multiple trials. Monte-Carlo simulations with input of a small, medium, or large effect size were conducted on multiple items or trials that were either averaged or aggregated to create a single dependent measure. Alpha was set at the .05 level, and the trials were assessed over item or trial correlations ranging from 0 to 1. Simulations showed a large increase in observed effect size averages and the power to accept these estimates as statistically significant increased over numbers of trials or items. Overestimation effects were mitigated as correlations between trials increased but still remained substantial in some cases. The implications of these findings for meta-analyses and different research scenarios are discussed.     

The effects of distributed and focused attention on rapid scene categorization

It has been argued that distributed attention facilitates the rapid extraction of summary statistics that underpins rapid scene categorization. We directly examined this hypothesis by investigating whether distributed or focused attention is more compatible with the extraction of both summary statistics (Experiment 1) and semantic scene information (Experiments 2–4). Experiment 1 replicated Chong and Treisman’s (2005a) result that mean circle size judgments are more compatible with a distributed attention task than a focused attention task. Experiment 2 investigated whether this finding extends to simple scene categorization by replacing the averaging task with an animal detection task. Consistent with Experiment 1, the ability to detect the presence of an animal was more compatible with a distributed attention task than a focused attention task. Experiments 3 and 4 addressed whether distributed attention influences scene categorization tasks. When observers were asked to classify scenes based on their basic level (e.g., beach or forest; Experiment 3), there was no statistically significant difference between focused and distributed attention task conditions; however, superordinate level categorization (e.g., natural or manmade; Experiment 4) was faster when combined with a task requiring distributed attention compared to a task requiring focused attention.