Susceptibility to semantic illusions: An individual-differences perspective

When askedHow many animals of each kind did Moses take on the ark?, people frequently respond “two” even though they know it was Noah, not Moses, who took animals on the ark. We replicate previous research by showing that susceptibility to semantic illusions is influenced by the semantic relatedness of both the impostor word and the surrounding context. However, we also show that the two text manipulations make independent contributions to semantic illusions, and we propose two individual-differences mechanisms that might underlie these two effects. We propose that the ability to resist the lure of a semantically related impostor word is related to the individual’s skill at accessing and reasoning about knowledge from long-term memory. And we propose that the ability to resist the lure of the surrounding sentential context is related to the individual’s capacity to simultaneously process and store information in working memory.     

LINKAGES BETWEEN WOMEN'S PROVIDER-ROLE ATTITUDES, PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING, AND FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS

The primary aim of this investigation was to examine the extent to which the meanings women attach to their provider-role responsibilities are differentially related to their psychological well-being and family relationships and to the division of labor in the home. The sample included 43 dualearner and 50 single-earner families. In home interviews, wives reported on role overload, depression, satisfaction with the marriage, and attitudes regarding women's and men's roles. Their children completed two measures assessing daily hassles and their relationship with their mother. Reports of daily involvement in household work were obtained from wives and husbands during four telephone interviews. Discriminant function analyses indicated that aspects of women's psychological well-being and marital and parent-child relationships and of the division of labor discriminated women in four different provider groups: maidsecondary providers, ambivalent coproviders, coproviders, and homemakers. Wives who were ambivalent about their provider responsibilities tended to report higher levels of depression and overload and significantly lower marital satisfaction. Wives who saw their employment as secondary to that of their husbands reported relatively higher levels of depression and overload but also the highest levels of marital satisfaction.     

Psychosocial correlates of eczema in a non-treatment-seeking population

Data from the Vietnam Experience Study were used to examine psychosocial correlates of eczema. Based upon the results of dermatologic examinations, three groups of male veterans were identified: (a) subjects with eczema (n = 80), (b) subjects with tinea (n = 282), and (c) subjects with no medical diagnosis (n = 176). These three groups were compared on measures of anxiety, depression, hostility, and social support. The Diagnostic Interview Schedule (Version III-A) was used to determine diagnoses of anxiety and depression and level of social support. MMPI Scales 2 and 7, the Wiggins content scale of Depression, and the Cook-Medley Hostility Scale were used to assess anxiety, depression, and hostility. Eczema subjects did not differ from tinea or no-disease control groups on dependent measures. These results are contrasted with previous studies of treatment-seeking patients, which showed greater prevalence of anxiety and depression among individuals with eczema. Directions for future research are suggested.This paper is taken from the first author's dissertation.     

Gender differences in depressive response: The role of social support

The present study investigated the possibility that women's ruminative response style to stressful events is due in part to differential advice that women and men receive from their social support networks. Undergraduates (60 men, 136 women) of various ethnic backgrounds (e.g., 21.4% English, 16.8% West Indian, 12.8% Chinese, 10.7% Italian) indicated the extent to which they would endorse various statements of advice for a stimulus person described as experiencing a negative life event. As predicted, subjects endorsed more ruminative advice for female stimulus persons than for male stimulus persons (p< .02). These findings imply that, since females in stressful situations seem more likely to receive ruminative advice than do their male counterparts, women's greater vulnerability to depressive symptoms may be partly the result of the concomitant dangers of stressful events and potentially harmful advice.     

Repetition priming and face processing: Priming occurs within the system that responds to the identity of a face

A familiar stimulus that has recently been recognized will be recognized a second time more quickly and more accurately than if it had not been primed by the earlier encounter. This is the phenomenon of “repetition priming”. Four experiments on repetition priming of face recognition suggest that repetition priming is a consequence of changes within the system that responds to the familiarity of a stimulus. In Experiment 1, classifying familiar faces by occupation facilitated subsequent responses to the same faces in a familiarity decision task (Is this face familiar or unfamiliar?) but not in an expression decision task (Is this face smiling or unsmiling?) or a sex decision task (Is this face male or female?). In Experiment 2, familiar faces showed repetition priming in a familiarity decision task, regardless of whether a familiarity judgment or an expression judgment had been required when the faces were first encountered. Expression decisions to familiar faces again failed to show repetition priming. In Experiment 3, familiar faces showed repetition priming in a familiarity decision task, regardless of whether a familiarity judgment or a sex judgment had been asked for when the faces were first encountered. Sex decisions to familiar faces again failed to show repetition priming. In Experiment 4, familiarity decisions continued to show repetition priming when a brief presentation time with encouragement to respond while the face was displayed reduced response latencies to speeds comparable to those for sex and expression judgments in Experiments 1 to 3. The results are problematic for theories that propose that repetition priming is mediated by episodic records of previous acts of stimulus encoding.     

Current and vestigial effects of overweight among women: Fear of fat,attitudinal body image,and eating behaviors

College females completed multiple, standardized measures of their fear of fat, attitudinal body image, and binge eating and dieting. Situational weigh-in measures were taken, including latency to get on the scale and anxiety while being weighed. Based on current weight and a structured weight history questionnaire, three groups were constructed: normal-weight subjects without an overweight history (NW; n=24), normal-weight subjects who were formerly overweight (FOW; n=16), and those currently overweight (OW; n=24). Group comparisons revealed, as expected, that OW females, relative to their NW peers, had more weight-related anxieties, more negative body experiences, and more frequent past-year dieting. Consistent with Stunkard's original proposition, the FOW group regarded their bodies as fatter and less affectively satisfying and expressed more weigh-in anxiety than NW participants. Currently normal-weight FOW subjects seldom differed from the currently OW individuals. Clinical and research implications are considered, particularly with regard to the psychological sequelae of weight loss.     

Extending the boundaries of psychoticism: Health care and the self-sentiment

A new questionnaire was constructed for the measurement of a hypothetical personality trait of ‘health care’, i.e. care and respect for the physical integrity of the body. It was found that the trait was a component of Cattell's self-sentiment factor. This yielded a new and more comprehensive self-sentiment questionnaire. The new questionnaire was validated by the demonstration of low scores in heroin addicts and alcoholics. Further investigation showed that the self-sentiment is highly correlated with P, of which it is best regarded as an additional expression. This result confirms the interpretation of P as the negative pole of a broad super-ego or socialization factor.     

Accessing stored information about familiar people

Summary Two experiments investigating access to occupations and names of familiar people are reported, in which the response requirements of occupation and name-categorization tasks were made equivalent. In Experiment 1 matching tasks were used, in which subjects were required to determine whether simultaneously presented pairs of faces, surnames, or full names were those of people with the same or different occupations (politician or nonpolitician) or with same or different first names (Michael or David). Experiment 2 required binary classification of individual faces or surnames in terms of the bearer's occupation (politician or nonpolitician) or first name (Michael or David). In both experiments responses to faces were faster in tasks involving access to occupations than in tasks involving access to first names, whereas for surnames there was no difference in reaction times between occupations and first names in matching or classification tasks. These findings are consistent with the idea that identity-specific semantic codes and name codes are accessed sequentially from faces, but in parallel from written names.     

Obese, older adults with knee osteoarthritis: weight loss, exercise, and quality of life.

This study examined the effects of dietary weight loss and exercise on the health-related quality of life (HRQL) of overweight and obese, older adults with knee osteoarthritis. A total of 316 older men and women with documented evidence of knee osteoarthritis were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 18-month interventions: dietary weight loss, exercise, dietary weight loss and exercise, or healthy lifestyle control. Measures included the SF-36 Health Survey and satisfaction with body function and appearance. Results revealed that the combined diet and exercise intervention had the most consistent, positive effect on HRQL compared with the control group; however, findings were restricted to measures of physical health or psychological outcomes that are related to the physical self.